After Potter: The Reawakening
by cafee
Summary: The Dark Lord is gone, Harry Potter is gone, Dumbledore is nowhere, and two girls find a wand. Will they help Voldemort return?
1. Prologue

To the readers:  
  
This story takes place about 15 years after Harry's seventh year. I don't lay claim to any writing skills whatsoever. The idea for this story just became stuck in my head and I couldn't find a fic to read about it, so I decided to write it myself. I had to get it out, if only to get rid of it. I don't know if the same topic has been broached before, due to the massive amount of HP fanfics it is impossible for me to go through all of them. If anyone has seen this kind of story covered, please inform me as I'd very much like to read it. Please read and review this. Any criticism is welcome. I of course have no owner's right whatsoever on Harry Potter and his universe.  
  
NEW:This is a repost, or rather a resending of the story so far, as the first chapters were boring and small, so I scrunched them together. I also made some corrections to the stupid mistakes that I ignored in my enthusiasm. I got about 20 chapters planned and I think there will be about 10 more afterwards.  
  
Many thanks to Sneezy Mouse for the comments and the help.  
  
Enjoy the story and please read and review  
  
Prologue  
  
When it happened many people thought He had won at last.  
  
He had won and they were all defenseless at his mercy.  
  
It was a while till the news came out, about what had happened. It took longer now. But when it did, many people, many people thought that it was his hand at work, and a few even voiced the thought, if this was us winning then perhaps it would have been better if we had lost. But that was for naught.  
  
The time had passed and nothing would be the same. 


	2. The Beginning

Chapter 1  
  
The morning sun struck the Wescot residence almost unexpectedly. The office buildings in the distance, built over 5 years ago made a most terrific wall that blocked it from appearing until it was well into the late morning. It had made Xenia sad when it first happened, as she was accustomed to the sun waking her up, but as she was only 5 years old at the time, she quickly forgot about it. In fact, not long after that she began imagining that the buildings were a giant castle in the distance, towering away from her house and lording over the countryside, like in the stories her gram told her.  
  
Xenia didn't dream of castles anymore though. She was older now and didn't have time for magic castles. She yawned and got up from her bed and stretched. She looked out her window down to the playground, and to a little further where she saw their next door neighbour putting out some milk for her cats.  
  
"Xenia!" a voice bellowed, "Come down for breakfast dear, or you won't have time to eat before the bus gets here". Xenia hurried up and got dressed. She didn't want to be late as the first period was free and she and Jo were going to decide what they were going to wear at next week's school party. She had some ideas, but since they were going to go as a team, they both had to agree. She ran out her bedroom door only to run face first into her father, who was in his pyjamas, and looked tired.  
  
"Hey there little cannon! In a hurry to get to school?" His face looked tired, but it had lit up as soon as he saw his daughter.  
  
"Yeah dad, I'm meeting with Jo before class. We're making plans about next week."  
  
"Oh, the Halloween Party eh?"  
  
"Yep!" she grinned. Then she remembered." Say, you are going to take us trick or treating, aren't you dad?. You're not working nights again" Her father's smile faded a bit.  
  
"I already asked my boss about it. I think I'll be free of night shifts all next week." He smiled as he said that, but Xenia knew that it wasn't up to him. Still she beamed a smile at him and grabbed him for a hug.  
  
"Thankies!!"  
  
She let go, and ran down to the kitchen. Her mother was there at the table drinking her morning coffee, in her business suit. On the table, right next to her was a plate of eggs and a bowl of cereal.  
  
"Come on dear, you are going to be late! You know my office is the other way so I can't take you to school if you are late"  
  
"I know Mom" sighed Xenia, who had heard this argument at least a hundred times before. She had never missed the bus in the whole of last year that she had been on it, after her mom changed jobs and couldn't drive her anymore. But still it was the same every morning. She quickly ate her cereal, but only picked at her eggs. As she was finishing up her glass of orange juice, her dad came down.  
  
"I'm off to bed dears" he said yawning." I'll go do the shopping this afternoon. Is there anything particular that my two angels will need?"  
  
"Donald, we need some batteries, the clock in the dining room stopped"  
  
"Right. Harriet dear. We go through a lot of those don't we? We changed those what, 3 years ago?" grimaced Mr Wescot.  
  
"Well dad, 3 years is a long time! You can't expect them to magically run forever!" said Xenia with a laugh.  
  
At that comment Xenia thought she saw her parents go a bit tense. But she must have imagined it, because her mother laughed as well and said "Right you are Xenia dear. Right you are. Now get your stuff and go outside. The bus should be coming soon."  
  
Xenia grabbed her backpack, kissed her mom and dad and went towards the door. She suddenly stopped and turned back.  
  
"Dad, can you buy me materials for our costume from the market? I don't know what we'll need yet but I can call you from my cell phone after you wake up."  
  
He nodded. "Alright, just don't call to early, I need my sleep"  
  
"Yep!" she shouted. Then she ran outside to the sound of an approaching bus.  
  
"Zee! Zeeee!" Xenia heard behind her as she was walking away from the bus, towards the soccer field. A skinny, black-haired girl was running towards her.  
  
"Morning" Xenia said as the skinny girl approached. "Greetings to my fellow buccaneer Jo Redbeard"  
  
Jo grimaced." I see three things wrong with that. Firstly you know how I hate even the thought of water. Secondly we haven't agreed on a costume yet. And Thirdly, it would be Jo Blackbeard." She said poking Xenia on the shoulder at every point  
  
"Point taken, point taken!" laughed Xenia "Don't make me walk the plank, please!"  
  
Both girls laughed their way to the old study hall, where they sat down  
  
"So if I'm not mistaken girlfriend, you want us to go around like pirates?" asked Jo, inquiringly.  
  
"That's the plan. Pirates are cool"  
  
"I'd rather go as something futuristic, like space travelers" retorted Jo  
  
"Come on" laughed Xenia,dismissing the idea with a wave of her hand "space travel is what everyone will be doing, since the first manned mission to mars left last month. Lets do something original."  
  
"I suppose you're right."  
  
"Aren't I always?"  
  
"Oh hush or I won't let you copy the English homework" said Jo, with a giant smile.  
  
"Ok, ok deal. I give" laughed Xenia "I still clean house in most subjects though. So don't go telling people I'm a dunce."  
  
"Deal, girlfriend" giggled Jo.  
  
"So where are we going to get the stuff for our costumes? With my idea at least we could get suits from my dad. Hospital bio-suits can look authentic enough if we fix them up."  
  
"Well we'll have to find some old style clothes, wont we?" said Xenia. "Hey!, we can look through my grandma's attic" There must be loads of weird stuff up there"  
  
"Heck, maybe we can get an even better idea then pirates" said Jo jokingly.  
  
"That's possible, there are loads of old stuff there." Said Xenia. Let's ask your mom to take us there after school."  
  
"Sure. I'll call her on after next period"  
  
"Why after next period?"  
  
"Because in 3 minutes we are due in Mrs Atkins' class" said Jo, getting up and picking up her bag.  
  
Xenia groans. "I hope I'm not tested today, She's always cranky in the mornings"  
  
And they left study hall, half-running to class.  
  
Jo's mom was only too happy to drive them over, so the two girls were giddy with anticipation all that day. Xenia had only been to her gran's house once, as she lived on the other side of the city in her old house. Her mom and dad had asked her many times to sell that old place and move in with them, but she wouldn't have it. "I have too many memories in this old place" she had said the last time the topic was broached in front of Xenia.  
  
As far as Xenia was concerened, Gran was absolutely right to want to live in her old house. She remembered the place to be big, way to big for her, grandpa and their 3 kids. It looked out on to a large field. It must have been in the family for a real long time, because the various floors, and wings looked like they had been built and added at different times, Xenia thought, as the family grew. She rememebered the place was full of odd stuff she figured were old family heirlooms. "We're sure to find a couple of pirates' costumes in here" thought Xenia as Jo's mom's car turned around off the motorway.  
  
  
  
"Wicked!" exclaimed Jo as they neared the house. "You never told me your gran had such a cool place for a home Zee!" she said as she pressed her nose on the car window, and then after thinking it over, lowering the window and sticking her head out. Her mom didn't like that. "Josephine, get your head back in the car right now!" she shouted.  
  
"As Jo did just that, Xenia saw her grandmother in the distance sitting outside the house and someone sitting beside her, his back turned to Xenia in the patio next to the front door. As they arrived to the access road nearing the house, the car slowed down as not to make to much dirt fly up, as the road was still not paved, In fact it was the only unpaved road Xenia could remember ever seeing. Still they rose quite a bit of a dustcloud till the car finally stopped. Xenia saw her gran and her guest get to their feet, straining to see the occupants of the car that had just stopped in front of their house, but the car windows still had the tint on so they were unseen.  
  
Xenia opened the door and shouted "Hi granny!" and ran towards her grandmother.  
  
"Xenia! My Xenia! Oh how wonderful to see you my girl! And you've grown so much, it can't be only 2 months since my last visit." said Gran, beaming towards her granddaughter.  
  
"You got your ears pierced too?"she exclaimed, staring at her left ear. "! I can't believe your mother allow you to do it so young? I thought Harriet had more sense!"  
  
"Oh gran, they're clip-ons, see?" Xenia removed her left earring, going red that her grandmother was criticising her in front of her best friend.  
  
"Oh, alright then dear" said Gran. "Who is your friend?" she asked, pointing at Jo.  
  
"Oh, Gran this is Jo, she's my best friend" Xenia said quickly,"and this is her mom. She drove us here."  
  
Jo's mom took a step forward and extended her hand.» Abbey Allington- Dursley--rather just Allington." she amended "Pleased to meet you" she said smiling.  
  
Gran's eyes furrowed at the sound of the name. Then she smiled and shook the hand being offered, a bit stifly. "Thank you for taking the time to drive my daughter to see me Mrs Allington"  
  
"Xenia is a wonderful child. and she and my Josephine are inseparable" she said. "I didn't mind at all." said Mrs Allington." And please call me Abbey"  
  
"Thank you dear, and you can call me Molly." Gran smiled "Oh where are my manners!" she suddenly turned towards her other guest that had been sitting quietly and smiling. Xenia looked at him. It was an old man, around sixty, sitting there with white hair all around his bald head.  
  
"Xenia, Josephine, Abbey, meet Ted Tonks." The old man smiled and nodded to all of them, then turned to Xenia. "Hello and very nice to meet all of you. Xenia, its very nice meeting you after all your grandmother has told me."  
  
Xenia shook the old man's hand "Do you live close by Mr. Tonks?"  
  
"Quite close, I'd have to say!" Mr. Tonks said.  
  
"Mr Tonks' appartment building was being torn down, so his daughter asked me if I could rent him a room." explained Gran "He's been living here for the last month"  
  
"Thats great Gran!" shouted Xenia. She knew her parents were worried that she was all alone here. Then she realized the blunder she made. "I mean--I didn't mean that it was great that you lost your house Mr Tonks" she blurted out apologetically. Her grandmother's gaze looked admonishing, but Mr Tonks just laughed.  
  
"It's alright m'dear! I'd rather stay here then in that old appt building. the scenery is better and I rather enjoy the conversation." said Mr Tonks, his eyes shining.  
  
Gran fidgeted a bit at this but said "This is all well, but you girls didn't say what you came here for. I doubt you came here to talk to Mr. Tonks. Do your parents know you are here?"  
  
"I called their home after my daughter called me this morning, and left a message, they should get it when they return home." Mrs Allington cut in. "We can call them from here if you wish."  
  
"No, no dear, I never had a tellyphone installed" said Gran. "Never liked them." Mrs Allington looked astonished but Xenia cut in "I have my cell phone with me, mom & dad can call me whenever they want. And dad has the night shift this last week so he would have woke up and gotten your message by now Mrs Allington" she said, all in one breath. Then she turned to her grandmother.  
  
"You know how Halloween is coming up next week, Gran? Well we were hoping you would let us look through your attic so that we can find stuff to make our costumes"  
  
"Oh wonderful! And what are you two going as?" said Gran, apparently the thought of Halloween rose her spirits quite a bit.  
  
"Pirates!" Both Xenia and Jo shouted.  
  
"My, my" smiled Gran. "Well there is a whole lot of stuff in the attic. You ought to find something there to make a decent pirate costume" she said thoughtfully.  
  
Gran got up and got in the house, slowly but surely. She came out a few moments later, with a large metal key.  
  
"Here's the key to the attic girls. Its up the main staircase, keep climbing till you find the last door. Just be mindful of your clothes, as I haven't been up there in years. The dust must be terrible."  
  
"Thankies Gran!" Xenia shouted and both the girls jumped up and hugged her. Xenia grabbed the key and both girls ran into the house.  
  
"Ah.. children" sighed Gran. "I remember when i could handle a half-dozen of them. Don't have the energy anymore. Would you like a cup of tea as we wait Abbey? They could be up there a long time."  
  
Mrs Allington, who had nodded to the previous comment, said "I think you're right. I'd love a cup, thank you Molly" and Gran went back in the kitchen.  
  
As Xenia and Jo crossed the kitchen, they looked around for the staircase. It was past the living room, in the opposite hall, so they crossed it to get to it. Suddenly Xenia's attention was diverted by a glitter on the wall. She stopped to look at the source of it, and caused Jo to bump into her.  
  
"Oomph! Hey, what's the deal Zee?" cried Jo, who turned towards what Xenia was looking at. It was a shiny metallic badge. It was bright red with a large golden "P" on it and the glitter was caused by a ray of sunshine shining through a crack in the thick curtains. As the girls looked they saw that the badge was one of a collection of badges framed in a small wooden frame.  
  
"What's that?" asked Jo  
  
"It looks like old school badges" said Xenia. "My dad told me he went to an old private school as a kid. So did my aunt and uncle. Dad said I'd probably have gone there if it hadn't shut down. This looks like the kind of things they would have there."  
  
"What does that "P" mean?" inquired Jo, looking at the collection of badges  
  
"Preppie?" offered Xenia with a laugh  
  
"It could stand for 'Prefect'. Other private schools have prefects"  
  
"Yeah, could be!" said Xenia. "And what about that HB Badge?"  
  
"Beats me."  
  
"There are loads of these things!" commented Jo. "These look old!" She pointed at the top row of badges that was identical to the bottom row, but indeed looked older, the metal dull and the golden "P" was chipped in one of them. "I wonder how old these are."  
  
"Let's ask Gran when we're done. Now come on, we got a costume to find"  
  
They crossed the hall towards the staircase and started climbing it. The wooden staircase creaked loudly but appeared to be sturdy enough. They climbed past the next floor, and continued until they found themselves in front of a large wooden door, at the end of the staircase. Xenia put the key in the lock and opened it.  
  
Downstairs, Molly, Ted Tonks and Abbey were all sitting down drinking tea. Gran had just brought Mrs Allington her cup and a fresh one for mr Tonks and was taking a sip from her own cup. Abbey spoke up, looking at the house:  
  
"This is an awfully large house for one person Molly. How do you manage it alone?"  
  
"Yes, it is quite large." said Molly. "This house has been in my family for many generations. Many were the times were over 10 people lived in here, but now.." she paused, "its just me. And Theodore here, of course"  
  
"Far be it for me to intrude on your family's history here, Molly dear" said Mr. Tonks, who was looking at the two women with a happy look in his eyes. "I have to say you have kept this place looking quite well, even before I came here"  
  
"Yes, well" said Gran flushing slightly at the compliment "it used to be so much easier, back when.. back when I was younger. It is just too tiring to keep this place the way I used too." She tilted her head upwards looking at the house "My son and his wife have asked me numerous times to come live with them, sell this place, but I just couldn't."  
  
"I think this is a wonderful house, Molly, I don't understand why Don and Harriet wouldn't stay here, This place would have been wonderful for Xenia to grow up in, wouldn't it?" replied mr Tonks, in an inquiring tone.  
  
Abbey spoke. "I'd have to agree Molly, this house is great for raising a family, I hope I'm not being too nosey to ask how come they didn't stay here?"  
  
Molly's eyes closed a bit, as she appeared to be remembering something disturbing, and said "Well at the time they got married.. Well, Ginny, my youngest was still living here, and they both worked very far from here to commute. This was before the highspeed monorail you see," she explained. "So they decided to buy a house instead. Afterwards, Ginny left for London, and I remained here, alone with my memories." She paused. "I don't blame them of course, its their own life, and I have plenty here to keep me busy."  
  
Abbey nodded. Molly looked at her and smiled "Now, dear, you'll forgive me in turn if I'm being too nosey, but you mentioned your name being Dursley?"  
  
Abbey tensed a bit. "Well no." she appeared reluctant to talk about this, but was clearly feeling she had to reply, as her own question had been answered. "Not any more. It was my married name, but I no longer use it since the divorce, unless it is for Josephine's sake. Why do you ask?"  
  
"Well I knew of a family of Dursleys in Surrey" said Molly, "with a man called ..." she strained her mind thinking of the name "Vernon."  
  
"Vernon is my father-in-law's name." said Abbey, in a mild surpise. "So you knew Dudley?"  
  
"Not personally. I knew a cousin of his and he had told me about them" said Molly, still looking at Abbey.  
  
"Ah, I never knew he had a cousin. Dudley never talked much about his relatives. I think I only met one aunt of his at our wedding, but she never visited us. Dudley's family wasn't too happy having me in the fold" said Abbey.  
  
Ah," said Molly "that's the Dursleys I remember" she told herself under her breath.  
  
"Excuse me again, but you don't look at all the kind of person that I would picture ending up with the Dudley I knew of"  
  
Abbey smiled. "Well you can chalk it up to being young and infatuated." She took a sip of her tea, apparently collecting her thoughts "I met Dudley in college. He was a member of the boxing team, and was quite an accomplished fighter. I was young, and fell for the big sports hero, and I couldn't see his faults at all. After he finished, he made me quit and we got married."  
  
She stopped talking, took a sip of her tea. Molly said "I'm sorry dear, I didn't mean to make you bring all that up again"  
  
"Its alright, Molly. Its been nearly a decade, I've gotten used to it.' said Abbey and continued. "I don't know if you knew how much Dudley was dependant on his parents for his decisions" she said after a while, "but they had never approved of me. I think marrying me was the only rebellious thing he ever did. Not that it lasted." she chuckled.  
  
"His father came to him one day and told him that if he didn't divorce me, he'd receive no part of his family inheritance."  
  
Molly almost dropped her cup, which was luckily nearly empty "He didn't! That no-good, inconsiderate, bloated toad!"  
  
Abbey, smiling at her indignation, continued. "Oh he did. And my Dudley, who had been counting on his father's money, had the papers drawn up in a week."  
  
"I got custody of Josephine, and the court awarded me most of the joint possesions, which weren't that much. The house as well. Turned out that old Vernon had found a client of his that had a daughter he thought perfect for Dudley. The large inheritance she had from her grandmother was a big incentive I'm sure. He married her within the year, and they are living in Canada, where her lands are."  
  
"And he just left his wife and daughter like that?" said Mr Tonks, incredulously.  
  
"Dudley was never one who cared for anything but his own pleasure. I didn't realized it until it was too late, Im afraid to say." said Abbey. "Still he gave me Jo, so he did something right."  
  
"Yes, that is a wonderful child." Said Molly. And she's such good friends with my Xenia."  
  
"They are quite inseparable" said Abbey, "I can't recall being that close with any of my friends at her age. They are always together. Its uncanny"  
  
"Not that uncanny, Abbey dear, I knew a group of children that was just as inseparable." said Molly, finishing her tea.  
  
As the girls entered through the door, they put their hands over their mouths, as the dust particles, disturbed after who knows how long, were suddenly moving again, flying around the room. The attic was dark, and the few beams of light shining though the papered-up windows, sliced through the dusty atmosphere like long pin-needles. Jo coughed.  
  
"Boy, your Gran wasn't kidding. She must have not come up here for years!" she exclaimed, pulling out a handkerchief that she placed over her mouth.  
  
Xenia nodded. "Yeah, I think you're right. Look at all this stuff!"  
  
They both looked around. The entire room was full with all sorts of boxes and trunks. There was an assortment of old brooms, which were piled in a corner, an old grandfather clock, which was facing the wall and had a great crack on the left wooden panel, some old pots, a dusty old style radio, a coat rack and an old couch. On the other side of the room there was about a half-dozen trunks, stacked in threes.  
  
"Well we better get started, or we'll be here all day," stated Xenia, pulling a box close to her and opening it. Jo joined her and they started emptying the box. The box contained clothes, old-fashioned pants, and shirts, which Xenia guessed must have been her grandfather's. They were large, but in drab and grey colors. "Well we can't make much from these things, we need something more colorful to be pirates" said Xenia.  
  
"Let's try those other boxes" offered Jo, grabbing a large, box off a pile and opening it. It contained a bunch of old sweaters, some used, but quite a lot of them had a vivid purple color, apparently never worn. "Wow, these look hand-knitted!" said Jo, digging deep in the box, to see if they went all the way down. "There must be over thirty of these in here. Did your grandpa have a shop?"  
  
"No, he didn't. Gran made these for the family. Mom and dad still have one of these purple ones each." She pushed the box aside. "I didn't know they had such a stock though."  
  
They went on opening boxes, and looking though stuff in them, but discovering nothing towards a pirates outfit, except two pairs of large boots, that on their smaller feet, could be made out like pirate boots, and an eye patch, which they found in an old medicine box, but that was white, and the strings were too small for either of them. They didn't mind the unfruitfulness of their search as they commented about the stuff they found in box after box of memorabilia there. One box contained a bunch of yellowed out comic books, which the girls took some time off and began to read. They had never seen those stories before, and but was fun reading about a weird guy who was called a muggle and got himself in loads of dangerous and impossible situations, so they lost about a half-hour just passing though them. After a while they found a box full of odd old bottles, that were obviously old cleaning stuff, as they had never seen those brands before, or even remember hearing names like "Magical Mess remover" or "Doxicide" or "Dolothon Darbold's Dirt Disapparator" "With names like these, no wonder they went out of business" said Jo, and they both laughed.  
  
"Lets try a trunk" said Xenia, seeing that their luck wasn't improving "Maybe there are some good stuff there".  
  
Together they pulled down the top left trunk. It had the initials "F.W" on it.  
  
"This must have been my uncle Fred's", said Xenia, trying to open the trunk, then looking at the padlock on the side. "It's locked" she said. "Lets try the next one"  
  
They didn't have luck on the next one either, as it too had a padlock. The third one however was unlocked, and they opened it. There were a lot of books in there, rolls of paper, some quills, and a bunch of old bottles.  
  
"This looks like a school trunk. All of these books.." said Xenia, but her attention was captured by a vivid red cloth hidden beneath some of the yellowed rolls of paper.  
  
She pushed the rolls aside and pulled out the scarlet object.  
  
"Look at this!" she said, grabbing it and pulling it out of the trunk. She held it up  
  
"What in the world is that?" asked Jo.  
  
Can't you tell? It's a costume, like a wizards costume! She pulled it over her shoulders and did a twirl.  
  
So? Aren't we looking for a pirate costume?  
  
"Yeah, but wizards are even cooler then pirates", said Xenia, putting the robe properly on, wearing the sleeves and sticking her hands in the abnormally long and narrow pockets "This must be an old Halloween costume. She looked at the robe. It had a little crest on the corner that had a lion, a snake, a badger and an eagle, with a large ornate H in the middle. Let's see if there are more of this stuff in here". She went back to the trunk and right from were she had found the first robe, she pulled out an old pointy hat and a second red robe.  
  
"Here take this, and try it on" said Xenia, passing the new robe  
  
Jo took it, put it on and stood in front of Xenia, each examining the other.  
  
"You know, I think you are right. These things are cool" she said, grinning. "Wizards it is then!"  
  
Xenia looked at the two of them. Being almost the same shape, the looked identical with the robes on. "They match too. We will look great at the party."  
  
"Why do you suppose there are two sets of robes here?"  
  
"Well you saw the sweaters, maybe gran made them" Xenia said, putting the pointy hat on her head. "This looks good on me, don't you think?"  
  
"Hey, no fair", said Jo, laughing, "where's my hat? "  
  
"Well this one's mine", said Xenia, admiring herself in a dusty mirror across the room."Look in the trunk, there probably more stuff, further down"  
  
Jo leaned over the trunk, searching for a hat, tossing stuff to the floor as she looked for the hat that would make her costume complete. As she reached the bottom of the trunk, she pulled out a long square box, like the sort used for keeping high quality fountain pens, only longer and taller. She almost tossed it aside and keep looking for a hat, but the nice finish on the wooden cover got her attention. "Zee, look at this thing."  
  
"Whats that?" said Xenia, who barely turned away from the mirror where she was admiring her disguise.  
  
Don't know yet "She popped the small latch on the box and looked inside. her eyes shined.  
  
"Wow!" she said. "Zee, you can keep the hat, I found me a wand!"  
  
"What?!" exclaimed Xenia, "Oh that's great Jo, that's just too perfect!" she said as she rushed up to Jo, who was swinging her newfound accessory in the air, making twirls, eight-figures, zig-zags and just plain flicks as if she were casting a spell like in the movies.  
  
"Is there another one?" said Xenia, as her eyes fell back into the trunk, looking eagerly. But the trunk was nearly empty, its contents strewn all over the dusty floor.  
  
"oh, don't pout Zee!" "I wasn't" replied immediately Xenia, who was however feeling envious.  
  
"Listen, if you really want one, we can make another wand, I think."said Jo, reading her friend's face.  
  
Xenia didn't want to appear spoiled and selfish. "No, there's no need. This way we'll each look alike, but also be different, so people can tell us apart at the party" she said earnestly.  
  
Jo's face lit up. "Its going to be marvelous Zee. I bet we'll have the best costumes there!"  
  
"I think so too" said Xenia brightly. "Now lets put all this stuff back in its place. This place looks like its been atomized"  
  
And the girls stuffed all the stuff back in the trunk, as the crack of light from the window was beginning to disappear. 


	3. The party

Chapter 2  
  
After leaving the attic tidy, or at least as tidy as they had found it, the girls stuffed their costumes in their bags and descended to the patio, where Jo's mom was still talking with mr Tonks and Molly.  
  
They walked out the door, where Abbey was the first to see them.  
  
"...Ted, you are telling me that because the NDE attack caused the structural damage to your building the insurance company refuses to pay up? That's shameful! You ought to.." her eyes fell on her daughter. "Josephine Dursley! You are blacker then a chimney sweep! Go clean yourself up right now! You too Xenia, Im not letting you girls in the car like that"  
  
Jo, who, like Xenia, in the excitement of discovering the perfect costume had totally failed to notice that they must be in an awful state, looked at herself and both were amazed that they hadn't noticed the dirt that covered their clothes, hands and hair. They looked like someone had sprinked grey flour on their hair, the occasional cobweb trailing from their dust-covered t-shirts.  
  
Molly turned around and gasped. She immediately got up and walked towards the door "Oh dear, girls to the bathroom, right away!" She went thorugh the kitchen and pointed them towards the other end of the room. "it's the door next to the kitchen sink. Follow the corridor straight into the last room. Shake off the dust from your clothes and hair in there, I'll clean it up later." She said, wincing at the trail of dark dust that marked the girls' way through the kitchen from the stairs..  
  
The girls went inside quickly and they washed up, taking turns to clear off the gray dust that was covering their clothes. Whiile Jo was beating at her no-longer white t-shirt in vain hope of returning it to a presentable condition, Xenia's cell went off.  
  
"Hey little cannon. I got a message from mrs Allington. Are you still at Grandma's house?"  
  
"Hey Daddy! We're still here! You should see our costumes, they are gonna be great!"  
  
"That's great baby, but unfortunately, there is a problem."  
  
Xenia's face fell, knowing at once what the problem was. "You can't take us out on Halloween?"  
  
"Sorry baby, my boss just called. I will be working night again all weekend."  
  
Xenia, who had been half-afraid this would happen, as it had before "But how are we going to go trick-or-treating then?"  
  
"I'll ask your mother, she might take you."her father's voice said, sounding a bit guilty.  
  
Xenia felt disappointed. While she loved her mom, she wasn't at all as much fun as her dad. She knew however that his job was hard on her dad, so she forced a cheery voice and said "Okay daddy. I'll see you tomorrow morning"  
  
She turned off the phone. Jo, who had been washing the dirt off her hair hadn't heard the conversation on the phone, so she had no idea why Xenia's face looked so miserable.  
  
"What's up? Who was on the phone?"  
  
"My dad. He can't make it on Halloween."  
  
"Oh no! Your dad is always great on Halloween" shouted Jo in disappointment, "now who's gonna take us?"  
  
"Dunno, Dad said he'll ask Mom", said Xenia, "but Mom is never fun at Halloween. Maybe we can ask your mom?"  
  
"Mom might do it, if she isn't working" said Jo."Lets ask her."  
  
The girls, having finished washing up, went back outside. Abbey was waiting by the car, so the girls said goodbye to Mr Tonks and they both hugged Molly, who said "You girls come back here whenever you like" then they ran to the car.  
  
As the cloud of dust from the access road settled, and the car picked up speed Jo leaned over to Xenia "You know, we should keep the costumes a secret, it will be a blast when we come out to the party with them" Xenia smiled. "I wonder what Becky will wear, remember last year she came as a tree, with branches everywhere?"  
  
The rest of the trip was spent talking about what the other kids will wear, and about the costumes worn the year before. The sky was getting darker as the sun disappeared behind the office buidling. Just as they reached the turn before Xenia's house, Jo remembered to ask about Halloween.  
  
"Mom, Zee's dad can't take us trick-or-treating on Friday. Do you think you can take us?"  
  
Abbey thought about it for a bit. "I think I can. What wrong with your dad Xenia?"  
  
"He had to work Mrs Allington. He's been on the night shift all week."  
  
"Poor man" she said as she turned into the street Xenia's house was. "Give him and your mother my hellos, will you?"  
  
"Sure thing, Mrs Allington, and thanks! Bye Jo, seeya tomorrow!" Xenia walked out of the car, her wizard's costume in her pack, and ran towards her front door and unlocked the door. Abbey, content that Xenia was in the house, turned and left.  
  
The next day Xenia told her dad that Mrs Allington had agreed to take them trick-or-treating so mom wouldn't have to. Mr Wescott, was a bit suspicious about the girls' rapidity of finding a replacement to his wife, but as he hadn't mentioned it yet to her, didn't press the subject. Mr Wescott works as a security guard at a private office building. The job paid good money, but the timetable was usually out of his control. He felt bad for not being there for his daughter, but work was work. He sighed and went to back in the bedroom to sleep.  
Xenia walked downstairs to the kitchen where her breakfast was waiting, next to the bowl of cereal a note read "Have an early meeting. Don't miss the bus. Love, mom" Xenia's mom worked at a newspaper, in charge of the archives, but is involved in half a dozen human rights organizations, ecology movements or political pressure groups. As such she is many times not home till late in the afternoon. She has even seen a few articles in print. She is always busy, although, she makes an effort to keep these activities away from her family, but that's hard to do, as a thrown styrofoam cup on the street will inevitably be the start of a lecture on the environement and pollution that would end with mr Wescott telling her to "Give it a rest, dear...", and while Xenia loved her very much, she didn't associate her much with 'fun' occasions.  
  
The rest of the week went by very quickly. The girls met at Jo's house on Thursday after school and washed the costumes, that were filthy from years in storage. After they were dry and ironed they tried them out again.  
  
"These outfits rock!" said Jo, smiling while admiring the scarlet red of the robe, that, now clean and seen under bright light looked a bit used and worn at the edges. "You know, I think these robes have been through more then one owner" she mused. "All the better" said Xenia, "this way they will look authentic, won't they?"  
  
As Friday afternoon arrived the girls were going to get ready at Jo's house so that they can go to the party together. They had worn all black under their robes so they really looked similar, except of couse that Xenia had her pointy hat, while Jo had her wand in her pocket. Walking out of the house they decided to walk to the hall the party was, as it was only half an hour's walk away. They walked slowly commenting about halloween the decorations on the houses. Xenia had been right about the space motif. There were more space-age decorations then there were pumpkins on the houses. Makeshift stuffed space suits were hanging from trees and giant models of the spaceship Pheadra II decorated rooftops. Other houses that had wizards and witches but they were using images from a wildly popular film from a few years back that showed wizards as bald tall guys with orange-green tights. The girls, neither of whom liked that movie, weren't impressed. There were a few houses that took a more traditional route, however, and the girls liked a small cottage that the owner had covered by giant fake cobwebs, leaving a small opening for the door, while a recording let out a cackle of laughter every few seconds that made the girls jump the first time they heard it, only to burst out laughing afterwards.  
  
As they arrived at the hall, they were greeted by a few other kids just arriving as well. The hall had been almost half full by people when they walked in, and Xenia pointed at several people  
  
"Look see? Emily, Joanne, Kathleen and Jack are all here as space travellers. And they all used hospital bio-suits to make them too. Aren't you glad I talked you out of that idea?" said Xenia with a grin.  
  
Jo stifled a laugh. "They do look identical, don' t they?" She spotted a black-costumed kid behind a space suit. "Look though, there's another witch.""They went with the classical black look though, didn't they?" commented Xenia. "Who is under that anyway?" They went over to the black-suited witch, who turned out to be a boy from their class. His mother was a makeup artist and had given him, along with a few very convincing warts. The girls walked around the party and were commenting on the various costumes. Becky Carmichael, who had dressed as a tree the previous year, was wearing a giant styrofoam 8-ball. The two wizards received quite a few compliments as some other girls proclaimed that they liked their double costumes a lot. "But how come you didn't get a hat Jo? Didn't wan't to mess up your hair?" said one of the girls. Jo grinned and sticking her hand in her pocket said "Well wizards only need a hat if it rains. But what is a wizard ..." she pulled out the long "..without a bonafide magic wand?"  
  
The girls cooed with appreciation. Jo, pointed the wand at each of them, casting imaginary spells when a voice shouted.  
  
"Doing magic there, Dursley?"  
  
A very fat kid was standing there in what was supposed to be a pirate's costume. It hadn't taken much effort to make. The kid had taken a pair of oversized pants and tied them at his waist to look baggy, and had a white t- shirt on top of a sweater. On the top of his head he had a plastic kid's pirate hat, that was several sizes to small for him. He had an eye patch, but it was apparently bothering him, so he had twisted it so that it effectively covered the top of his ear. Two other shorter but just as fat were standing behind him, wearing pig masks, which, admittedly made their costume a lot more lifelike then the pirate's did.  
  
"What are you doing here Arno?" said Jo, in disgust, looking at the boy. "Ran out of kitties to hurt?" She and Xenia had discovered him and his buddies kicking a litter of kittens apparently abandoned by their mother that summer. They told on him, which got him into trouble, and he has been bothering them ever since.  
  
"You aren't very good at this magic thing, are you Dursley?" and before Jo or anyone could react grabbed the wand from her limp hand. "Maybe I can do better. By the rain, may you goons feel pain!"he started, slashing the wand sharply at his buddies' wrists, essentially whacking them hard. "Well my magic apparently works as these boys are feeling pain" he laughed at his own joke. His buddies who had immediately winced, but started laughing as soon as he did.  
  
Jo made a grab for the wand. "Give it back here you ox!" she said as Arno raised his hand, pointing the wand straight up to get it out of her reach. Xenia grabbed at him, dragging his arm down with one hand, and reaching up towards the wand.  
  
They weren't sure who grabbed the wand first, but as they were trying to drag the wand down, the tip of the wand erupted, and a flurry of red light filled the giant hall. Red and yellow light gushed out of the wand up two feet,three feet straight up, illuminating Arno, his cronies, Jo and Xenia, and the girls they were talking to, who let out a squeal of amazement at the light show.  
  
Arno, caught completely unawares, fell back on to his friends, causing them all to tumble down on the floor, followed by an uproar of laughter from the kids all around them, who turned as soon as the red light had appeared. As soon as Arno let go of the wand, Jo who had the best grip on it, grabbed the wand and stuck it in her pocket. She turned to Xenia, to see her standing next to her her mouth open, then turned to the fat boy. "You will never touch my stuff again, do you hear me, you big ox?" she shouted at him  
  
"If you bug us again, you will find yourself back on your butt staring, do you get it?" shouted Xenia, regaining her voice after the unexpected light show..  
  
"Lets go Zee, I need some air" said Jo, looking flushed.  
  
"I'm coming" Xenia answered, wanting to get outside as well.  
  
The two girls walked out the front door, amid cries of "cool effects Jo" and "Nice light show Dursley", kept walking and stopped a good 50 feet from the building, so that the music was almost totally muffled. The girls were looking at each other, the bullying Arno forgotten, they were both thinking about the wand. "All this week I hadn't noticed the wand was electric" said Jo, pulling it out from her pocket, meaning to look for the hidden switch. She gasped.  
  
The wand, which she expected to find busted at the tip, with charred edges at the end, was as perfect as it was when she took it from the case.  
  
Xenia who was thinking along the same lines looked at Jo, straight in the eyes.  
  
"What the heck is that thing Jo?' she said. Jo, just looked at it, amazed. Both girls stayed silent, trying to recall the image of what happened.  
  
"I was grasping at the wand, while you were dragging that idiot's hand down." said Jo.  
  
"I had touched the wand at that last lunge I did, I was about to grab it when that red light shone."  
  
"One of us must have activated it." said Jo, still flushed.  
  
"Why us? Couldn't it have been that idiot?" said Xenia "He was holding it, wasn't he?"  
  
"I don't think so. He wouldn't have toppled like that. He was terrified"  
  
"Right. We didn't fall like he did" said Xenia thoughtfully."But what does that mean? What is this thing?"  
  
Jo's eye widened. She grabbed Xenia's hands and squeezed them, "Zee, you know what we found? We found a real magic wand!" 


	4. The memories

Here's another chapter. I know that the story seems to be going slowly so far, but the main idea behind the story required a few setup chapters for the storytelling. (Combine that with this being my first 'ever' attempt at storytelling and you can understand why this is taking this long and why there are any errors or any shortcomings in it). I urge you please to review this if you read it and find something wrong, as it would help me tell the story better. I am not afraid of criticism, although I do find flames counter-productive. (If you wish to say I got something right and sing my praises, that is also, of course, acceptable) In any case there will be some more development from now on, as I have given the basics of the story, and the game is afoot. Especially (and in danger of spoiling the story) in this and the following chapter you will become aware of what the true cost of pushing back Voldemort was, and what this story is all about.

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Don Wescot got up slowly from his bed and went over to the window. He stared at the giant behemoth of steel, glass and concrete that had deprived him of the view that had been one of the reasons they had decided to buy that house. The offices were mostly closed at this hour, but there were still some late workers as the lights shone like tiny little golden specks in the distance. One the top floors there was a cluster of offices that were still working close together and the flickering of the light from their windows reminded him of something he hadn't seen in over a decade.

A golden snitch.

The idea came unbidden, but as he remembered the flying little winged ball flying over a quidditch field, the memories he keeps pushing away came back to him with a vengeance as they did many times, not as often as earlier on but often enough, usually after he woke up in the afternoon after a night shift. He remembered the whole story, but not as a linear thing, with a beginning, middle and end, but in flashes, images that materialized in front of his eyes. The increasing panic of the magic world, the attack on Dumbledore, the culling of the Hufflepuffs, the Order of the Phoenix disbanded, his and Hermione's first time together, the night after her parents were killed by Deatheaters, the destruction of Diagon Alley. The night it all came down. So many were lost.., His father, Charlie, Bill, Fleur, Parvati, Luna, Neville….

Harry.

He tries to shut out those last images, as they hurt too much to remember, but he doesn't manage, he remembers the pain, the anger, the despair, the fury. If only…. 

The funny part was that after all that happened, he remembers thinking that it was finally over, that after all the losses, before they learned about the greatest tragedy, they had finally earned the right to be at peace. That was funny.

No, wait. That's not funny at all. 

He mused again about the circumstances that drove them into hiding. He remembers getting issued a new name and history by the muggles. He remembers the last time he saw George. He remembers Hermione telling him she was pregnant. The notion that his daughter will grow up as a muggle had hit him before, and at times harder then it did now, but he still felt a lump in his throat knowing that he can never tell her what she could have been, what her heritage is. But he knows he can't and never will. His darling Xenia was a muggle now, just like him.

He shook his head to clear out the memories of yesteryear. He put on his robe and walked down the staircase to the kitchen to start the coffee.

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

The girls were dumbstruck about their discovery. "A … _magic_ wand?" said Xenia incredulously.

"What else could it be?" said Jo "To cause sparks fly like that?"

Xenia looked totally disbelieving. "It could have a secret mechanism, like a nano engine."

"Don't be thick. NASA only announced Nano engine prototypes a year ago. And none of the nanogines I read about could do that-that…" Jo waved her hands around "light show. They work too slowly for that" said Jo. "Besides, these things have been in your grandmothers' house for years" she added ""And what would someone want to use nanogines to make this?"

"Nanogines are a still a better explanation then MAGIC Jo! Please, come on!" 

"Maybe, but think about this" continued Jo, "this is a wooden stick, Nanogines are metal." 

Stubbornly defiant a bit before. Xenia now looked like she was thinking about it.

"I know it sounds incredible Zee, but what if it's true?" Jo pressed on. "Your family must have had a magician in it, and it was his stuff we found!"

"No way, Dad would have told me about anything like that, wouldn't he?" said Xenia, by that time she had partly accepted that it just might be true. After all they had found the stuff in a trunk in his parents' home. Xenia felt a bit annoyed towards her father for not telling her about something like this. "I'll ask him tonight—no, he's working tonight. I'll ask him tomorrow morning."

"Having a magician in the family would be so cool Zee."said Jo, her eyes wide with excitement.

Xenia frowned slightly. "We don't know that I do have a magician relative yet, maybe they just bought this stuff at a flee market, second-hand, as costumes, and never even knew they had real powers, that they could do this. After all, we waved that wand dozens of times this week, and nothing happened then, did it?" she offered. 

"Hmm, you're right" said Jo, appearing skeptical. She had caught a hint of Xenia's annoyance. "Maybe our dad didn't even know about it." she said in a pensive tone.

"What do you mean, how could he not?" said Xenia.

Well, maybe it wasn't your dad's stuff, maybe it was your aunt or uncle's, maybe it was their trunk we opened, couldn't it? In fact, they might be the ones to tell us more about this wand and the robes."

Xenia, who had been genuinely bothered about the possibility that her father was hiding something from her, grasped at this idea at once. "You, know that's very possible. Aunt Ginny lived at that house a long time after Dad left."

"What about your uncle?" asked Jo.

"My uncle is a bit too serious to have anything to do with magic" replied Xenia, remembering her father's brother. "But we can ask him about it as well, if we visit Aunt Ginny. They work together, so he'll be there"

"Great", said Jo, who looked up towards the door of the hall where the party was still going strong. "Hey, my mom is here already!" she said spotting her in front of the building. Xenia looked at the time, and saw that the time they had agreed for Mrs Allington to take them trick-or-treating had come. She looked over at her friend's mom. "I didn't even notice the time"

"Time flies when you're having fun, doesn't it" said Jo, with a grin.

Mrs Allington was leaning on her car, looking at the doors, clearly not having seen the girls standing to her left. 

"Lets not tell your mom about the wand, Jo" said Xenia as they started walking towards her.

"Why not?" 

"Because she'll probably tell my mom and dad, and I know they will freak. they might even take the wand away. My mom would definitely go crazy if she knew I had a stick that can spit fire," said Xenia, with an image of her mother ready in place. "So, I bet would yours"

"You know," nodded Jo "come to think of it, my mom would probably react the same way. Ok then, we keep it quiet, and we decide what we are gonna do tomorrow. We'll meet in the morning at my house." 

"Deal" said Jo.

The two girls reached Mrs Allington who was startled to see them coming from her right, they all got in the car and drove off.The girls' minds so full of questions and possibilities about what had happened that they didn't even think about saying goodbye to the kids back in the hall.

Mrs Allington had already planned a route for them to take. She left them on the corner and waited for them in the car at the other corner, while the girls took turns ringing doorbells and taking goodies. Afterwards, when they reached the car they emptied their bags in it. The people were nice and they had gathered a lot of candy in a short amount of time. An very old man, who was short, dwarfish even, and maybe a bit funny in the head looked at their costumes and was completely delighted, giving them at least 2 pounds of chocolates each, as well as awarding them points for a fine appearance. The girls were having fun, however the whole affair would have been a lot more enjoyable if they weren't both thinking about the light that had come from the wand. Jo fingered the handle of it in her pocket a few times, but stopped cold at the thought that it might start again and set her on fire. Xenia lost herself in thought about what might be the mysterious origin of the wand a couple of times, but didn't reach any conclusions she liked. She still thought that things like magic were impossible, but she couldn't find a possible solution to what happened earlier that night.

The next morning, Mrs Wescot was home in the morning. She wanted to get Xenia to talk about her Halloween fun, but Xenia was in such a hurry leave that her mother got annoyed. 

"Whats so important that you can't take time to talk to your own mother?" Not wanting to get in trouble, or worse, make her mom suspicious that something was going on, she went back and told her, in broad strokes, the events of the previous evening, neglecting to mention anything about luminenescent wands. After about half an hour, Xenia took her bike and rode it quickly to Jo's house. She found Jo waiting for her in front of the kitchen door. "Come on, lets go upstairs, mom isn't here, she went to the market" The two girls rushed up to Jo's room, where Jo pulled the latch on it.

Xenia, her face flushed from racing all the way, asked, "Where is it?"

"Here" Jo said, picking up the wand from the table. "I have been trying to get it to do something all morning. No luck."

"Let me try." said Xenia, eager to get a chance at it. She grabbed the long piece of varnished wood that seemed quite different to her, now that she knew what it could do. She carefully waved it at chairs,tentatively pointed at the desk,then the ceiling, then did twirls and 8's in the air, she jabbed imaginary swordsmen with it pointing front, and finally held it up as they had held it the night before.

"Nope. Nothing. Not even a glow. " she said sadly.

"Well that settles it. That thing wont work unless it wants to apparently." said Jo miserably. "Maybe it will help if we find out more about it."

"Yeah, I think it will." Said Xenia, putting the wand down and sitting on the bed. "Unfortunately, aunt Ginny is out of town. I asked dad this morning and said that she wont be back till next Thursday."

"So we can't go visit till next Saturday then." Said Jo, frowning," I don't want to wait a whole week"

"Neither do I, but there is nothing we can do" said Xenia, glumly.

"Cant we go, and ask your uncle if he knows anything?" 

"Well we could, but then if we come up empty, then we'll have to go again next week too, and mom and dad would start asking why we're going there all the time" said Xenia.

"Point taken." sighed Jo. "So we wait."

She got up and took the wand and replaced it in its case, which she had taken with her. Then she nearly dropped it. "Oh my god"

"What?" said Xenia startled.

"With all the excitement we forgot what Monday is!"

"What is it ?" said Xenia, not able to think of anything. Then she remembered.

"Mrs Atkins' review test!" the girls shouted in chorus. "Mom will ground me for a month if I fail." said Jo.

"Then lets make sure you wont fail, why don't we? I need my partner in crime this month"

And with that they left the bedroom for the study, both of them giggling. 

The next week went along pretty normally. Even though the girls spent some time discussing what could Xenia's aunt tell them about the wand, they spent most of the first half of the week studying as the 1st trimester reviews were due at school and both wanted to do well. On Thursday, Xenia called aunt Ginny to ask if they could visit, and she got an emphatic yes, as she half-expected, as her aunt was younger and was close to her as she was growing up. So the girls knew they would have a hard time till Saturday came and the mystery of the wand would be solved.


	5. Aunt & Uncle

Here's the next chapter.

Lyra: Thanks for your reviews. You are absolutely right about the space. I did indeed have a space between POVs but it didn't appear when I posted, and neither did some other formatting. I will try to repost it, along with this chapter as a plain text file and maybe it will appear as intended. I'm sorry that I killed off some off your favorite characters, but remember that this was Don's memory, and his point of view might not be necessarily accurate. (Not giving anything else away, but the major events that happened before the story will be revealed in due course)

As Saturday morning arrived, the Wescots were gathered around the kitchen table eating breakfast together. Ever since Xenia could remember they always ate breakfast together on Saturday, and they her parents made an extra effort for it ever since they started having irregular work schedules. Some weeks it was that Saturday breakfast was the only meal they shared all week, and as such it was a chance to catch up on each other.

"How did you do in your English test, Xenia?"

"Pretty well, I think. I might have gotten the gerunds wrong but I believe I aced the multiple answer section." said Xenia, eating her eggs. Her mind was half on the conversation and half on her upcoming visit to her aunt.

"You need to study a bit harder, Xenia dear." interjected Mrs Wescot."Your last English tests scores were horrid."

"Oh mom, I did okay this time, didn't you hear? Besides I have the 5th highest average in the class." said Xenia, in an tired way.

"And if you could raise that abysmal English grade, you could be first."pressed on Mrs Wescot.

"Oh come on Harriet, she doesn't need to be the first in everything, I think she's doing fine." cut in Mr. Wescot.

As her parents took up the conversation once again, Xenia kept eating her eggs, somewhat bored. This conversation had happened before, in surprisingly the same wording quite a few times. The truth was that she didn't like English, and barely gave it any thought. It amazed her sometimes that she hadn't flunked it yet, but she had Jo to thank for that, as she helped her out with it, while Xenia helped her with her math. She had heard all the stories of her mother being one of the top students in her school and kind of understood her desire to have her follow in her footsteps, but it annoyed her a bit that being the 5th best student didn't seem to count, wasn't good enough for her.

Mr Wescot looked at his wife and smiled.. "Harriet, I know you want her to be as good at school as she can be, but its no use, she has my genes too, doesn't she? You do remember how awful I was at school, don't you? I wouldn't have passed half my classes if you hadn't helped me through them."

"I know, Don," said Mrs. Wescot, exasperated "but that's no reason for Xenia not to try her best, is it? She doesn't need to be the top student, but she could at least try!" she said determinately, but her husband was just smiling and looking at her eyes.

" Oh alright, Don." she said, resigned, and turned to her daughter. "Xenia dear, don't think I am disappointed in you, you do fine work, but I noticed that even you don't seem to study for English, please make an effort, won't you? Thats all I ask."

"All right, mom" sighed Xenia, finishing her eggs. "Can I go meet Jo? We are going over to Aunt Ginny's today" she said getting up from the table, and taking her plate to the dishwasher.

"How are you going way over to the other side of town?" asked Mrs Wescot, inquisitively.

"By bus. We asked Aunt Ginny and she said that the no 15 stops right outside her office, so we only have to take one line." explained Xenia. "She will wait for us there."

"Alright then" said Mrs. Wescot, still I don't know why you got this desire to visit your aunt all of a sudden."

"Well, she promised me to take us for ice cream if I visited her. She offered it last Christmas." said Xenia, glad to have remembered this little bit of info."I want her to meet Jo, too"

Mrs Wescot smiled and said "All right then, but don't eat too much ice cream dear. And tell her we say hi"

"I won't, and I will " promised Xeniaand started to leave.

"Oh honey," shouted Mr Wescot as she was leaving, "turn on the radio, the news are starting in a bit."

Xenia flicked the switch on the radio and threw the remote to her dad, then started walking toward the stairs to get ready.

The radio was already playing the familiar jingle that meant that the news was just starting. The announcer's voice came on:

"Jonathan Galford here, with the Saturday Morning Report. Last night's bombing of the underground station at Tower Hill, as well as the two bombings earlier this week were confirmed as being the work of the NDE. This brings the total of attacks attributed to the terrorist group calling themselves "NDE" this month to 4 and this year to 7. As you may remember, this group that first surfaced over a decade ago, got well known after causing a number of random bombings, had fallen into obscurity until the beginning of this year when they struck again at King's Cross station. It was long believed that this group is part of an underground cult that is paving the way for the 'day of the reawakening' although there hasn't been any more information available on them.All we know about the group was mentioned in a letter they sent at their last attack 12 years ago, along with their trademark card with a skull and a snake that was what they used to identify themselves. These recent attacks haven't had any human casualties yet, but police specialists are at a loss on whether this has been intentional. The groups first cycle of terror didn't have any regard for human life and the failure to catch even a member of this group had led to the resignation of the then chief of Scotland Yard. Based strongly on the lack of casualties opinions vary on whether this group is indeed the same group of people that performed the attacks over 12 years ago. If so, the question in everybody's mind is why did they stay silent for over a decade before striking again. More importantly, does the recent increase of attacks in the last week mean bad news for the safety of the general populace? We are expecting a speech from the Prime minister later today. Our reporters will keep you informed about any news as they break. In other news…"

Mr Wescot, who had been listening intently to the report, turned towards his wife to find her looking just as white-faced as he thought he must be. "It can't happen again, can it?" he voiced to her.

I mean, we thought they gave up, resigned to reality… 

"Apparently they didn't give up." Said Mrs Wescot, who had grabbed her husbands' hand tightly. "But why now?? Why after all these years?" 

"You don't suppose they found a way to… no, it can't be.." Mr Wescot trailed off 

"That's impossible." She nodded her head "You know that we tried for years afterwards, tried everything, it couldn't be done." she looked determined. "I don't know who is behind this this time, but if they think they can bring him back thay are insane. In any case, they are going to kill people again if they are not stopped. There is only one thing to do." 

"you mean.." Mr Wescot's voice trailed off.

"Yes" said Mrs. Wescot, determinedly, "Go get the phones. We're getting the Order back together."

"But what about Xenia? Will she be safe? If those bastards get near our daughter…" said Mr. Wescot trembling.

"Xenia will be fine." She reassured him. "They don't know who she is. They have no reason to go after her. She'll be safe there with Ginny and Fred" she said. 

Mr. Wescot looked at her for a moment, and then Mrs. Wescot drew her husband into a tight hug. After a moment they both got up, and went out of the kitchen. There was a lot of work to be done.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Xenia was already packed for the journey, having put her set of robes and hat in her school bag, and as he put on her trainers, she grabbed the bag, and ran outside, yelling a goodbye to her parents who were still apparently listening to the news. She wanted to get to Jo's house as soon as possible so she decided to take her bike there, and she'd ride it back at night. She found Jo waiting on the doorstep, her bag at her feet. 

"Come on Zee! What took you? I was just about to call." she said, getting up.

"Mom started at me again for my last English test." said Xenia, pushing her bike in the Allington's shed.

"Ah, well you said you did better this one, so maybe she'll get off your back." Said Jo, encouragingly. "Now, let's move, the bus stop is this way"

The two girls walk towards the bus stop, quickly to keep from missing the bus.  They were rewarded for their haste by the bus arriving in less then a minute, and they were on their way. Xenia's aunt lived across the city so the bus ride was going to be a long one. The girls talked about the people they watched out the window, and the trip appeared shorter then it actually was. When the bus neared their stop Xenia and Jo marveled at the buildings. The area was of the newly rebuilt part of London, the buildings shining with metal and glass. As they the bus stopped and the girls got off, a woman was waiving to them from 50 feet away, sitting in a small coffee shop.  
  
"Aunt Ginny!" cried Xenia. The girls ran over to the table where Aunt Ginny was sitting.  
  
"Hello Zee, and friend of Zee" said Ginny, with a smile. She was wearing a navy blue business suit, her hair dyed blonde, she looked like a hard set businesswoman. She was wearing a pair of designer sunglasses, which she took off as the girls sat down. Jo noticed that her eyes were warm and friendly, and that didn't fit in with her appearance at all.

"Aunt Ginny, this is Jo. Jo, meet my aunt Ginny" said Xenia, smiling at her. Ginny was the only one in the family who used Xenia's nickname, and Xenia enjoyed it. As she didn't have any brothers and sisters, or even cousins in her family, her aunt was the family member that was closer to her age, and even though she was only a year younger then her parents, she always seemed younger.

"Pleased to meet you Jo" said Ginny. "What'll you girls have?" She waived for the waitor to bring them some menus. The girls got a couple of insanely large sundaes and soon enough they were eating them. "So how's my favorite niece doing?" asked Ginny sipping down her coffee.

"I'm good aunt Ginny," said Xenia, between spoonfuls of ice cream. "Oh, Mom and dad say hi."

"Is my brother still working night shifts?" asked Ginny with concern.

"Yeah, he's been working hard." said Xenia, her spirits suddenly failing.

"Better times will come, Zee. Don't worry." said Ginny reassuringly. "Now tell me, how is school, how are you doing there? Are you still the little genius your dad was bragging about?"

Xenia laughed. "I'm doing well in all but English, but mom is making a big deal out of it."

  
"Oh, don't worry." Ginny said, her smile widening. "I remember your mother telling my brothers and me off about our performance all the time, and  we didn't turn out too bad." She nodded at her outfit.

Xenia smiled at that. "You're right, aunt Ginny. How is your business going?" she asked.

"Oh, its going well enough." she smiled again. Truth is business is better this year then ever before."

"What do you do Mrs Wescot?" asked Jo, who had been eliminating her sundae.

"Call me Ginny darling, and I work in mediation" said Ginny.

"Mediation?" asked Jo, confused. "What does that mean?"

"It means I help people that need to do stuff or sell stuff, find people that need or want to buy the same stuff."

"And that's a job?" inquired Jo. "Do you make a lot of money from it?"

"Oh, I get by Jo. There are always people who need help" said Ginny, looking at Jo from the top of her coffee. At that point her cell phone went off. "Ginny. What? No, no Fred, I told her not to move ahead with the deal till I return.what? NO! Do not make a move till I get there. Ginny out." 

She flipped the phone into her purse. "Girls, we're going to have a small break in our day." she looked angry at something and her eyes were on fire. "But there is a bright side. You'll get to see my offices" 

Xenia and Jo, looked at each other. If Ginny has to work, then they won't be able to ask her about the wand. "Oh don't look like that" pleaded Ginny, "it will only be 20-30 minutes tops, then I'll take you girls on a drive around the town."

"Will uncle Fred be at the office, aunt Ginny? I haven't seen him in a while either"

"Of course he will be. He's there now, It was him on the phone in fact," said Ginny in a hurry."You'll be able to see him too. So what do you say??"

"Lets go." said Jo. "Yeah, work can't wait" added Xenia.

"Great. Let's get going then!"

Ginny left the money for the ice creams and her coffee on the table and she almost ran towards a large skyscraper in the distance, almost dragging the two girls behind her. Getting in it, she rushed then in an elevator. When they reached their floor they walked very quickly down a corridor, and they stopped at a smoked glass  door. 

Ginny stopped a minute and composed herself, straightened out her clothes and opened the door. The office front hall was an oval room with wooden panelling on the sides, and a reception counter on the other end,with two corridors on either side of it. A dark haired woman sat there, and looked up as soon as they got in the door. Ginny passed by the receptionist's counter, who waived towards a room down the left corridor mouthing something to her, and Ginny nodded. She turned to the girls. "You go through there to your uncle Fred's office," she pointed towards a door on their right "and wait for me there." They nodded and she was gone in a flash. The girls looked at each other, shrugged and walked towards the door on the end of the corridor. They knocked on it, and heard a voice shout "Come in!". So they opened the door and went in. 

The room was totally different from the office before it. It was a long dark room, full of rows of shelves packed to the top with stuff. At one corner a light shone over the shelves so the girls walked towards it. 

"uncle Fred? " called out Xenia, tentatively.

"Xenia!" a voice bellowed from the place where the light came from. "Ginny said you were coming over here today!. Come on in here"

The girls crossed the room towards the light. There they saw a large cubicle, with three walls of it taken by a three-sided desk, full with various folders, stamps, but also electronic boards, what looked like old computer parts, some some bottles that looked like they contained paint. Across a shelf over the right side there were 4 monitors of varying sizes that were showing various locations. Jo recognized one of them to be the lobby outside. In a swivel chair right in the middle sat a large man with vivid red hair that was longish in the back, with the large forehead, that would grow into a bald spot in a few years. 

Fred grabbed Xenia into a bear hug and lifted her off her feet. "How's my little niece? How's the pride of the family?" Xenia was quite taken aback. She wasn't used to her uncle being so open to others, he was as long as she remembered him a somber, morose character. This was quite out of character. "He-hello uncle F-fred, can I breathe again please?" she choked out. Her uncle left a giant roar of a laugh and let her down. "Sorry about that, Xenia. Its just that I haven't seen you in ages. I can't believe how much you've grown. I remember you being" he stretched out his hand to about Xenia's waist," this tall." He turned towards Jo. 

"Who's your friend here?" he said smiling at Jo. 

Xenia replied  "This is my friend Jo, we go to school together."

Fred took an old fashioned bow and said "Fred Wescot, pleased to make your acquaintance"

Jo laughed at this, and so did Xenia, who couldn't believe this was her uncle.

"Uncle Fred, forgive me if this is rude but - -"

His eyes twinkled. "You want to know where did your totally evil and grumpy uncle Fred went?"

Xenia flushed. "I wasn't going to say it like that!" she protested.

"Nevertheless, it was true. I had been a real grouch the last time you remember me" His smile stayed on but his eyes went a bit wider. "Truth was I had some problems for a while, but I put them behind me. Now I'm back to being the person I used to be. I can finally be your totally evil and funny uncle Fred!" he grabbed a party streamer from the table and blew it at them.

The girls laughed at this. Xenia still thought that it was weird seeing her uncle laughing and joking all of a sudden, but she found his happiness was infectious and couldn't help smiling with him.

"Uncle Fred, what are all these gadgets?" she asked, looking at all the electronics on the desk.

"That's the tools of our trade, my dear" he answered jovially.

"Tools? What do you need microelectronics for mediation?" asked Jo.

"Mediation?" he said, taken aback. "Oh well yes, it pays to be prepared, when you deal with people, in our line of work you need be one step ahead." He got up, pressed a few buttons and the images on one of the monitors changed. Fred examined the rotating images on it and satisfied that everything was all right, he switched it back to the original. He smiled back at the girls.

"How would the two of you like to see some magic?"

The girls froze at the sound of that word. They turned around to face each other. With all the haste and the new surroundings they had both forgotten the main reason for their trip here, and now they had been both reminded of it and possibly had an answer."Y-you can do magic, uncle Fred?" said Xenia expectantly.

"Of course I can! Its easy if you know how." He winked at them.

"Please show us, Mr. Wescot!" said Jo, a pleading note in her voice.

"Well, if you really want to.." said Fred, and turned towards the desk, and started looking through the drawers. "Now were did I put it, I know I had it in here" he said, searching in all the drawers.

Xenia and Jo looked at each other again, their eyes crackling with excitement. Uncle Fred was the one that had the wand, and now he was looking for another wand, just like the one they had found and would show them magic.

"A ha! Found it!" he exclaimed, and pulled out …

a deck of cards.

As quickly as their enthusiasm had risen, it deflated. Uncle Fred was going to show them card tricks. 

Uncle Fred, who had his bad to them preparing the deck, didn't notice the girls' faces, and went on to do his first trick.  It was quite a good trick, and the ones that followed were just as good, but the girls, feeling utterly disappointed, didn't seem to enjoy them at all. After the fourth time uncle Fred got less then the cheers he expected he asked them "Don't you like magic tricks, girls?"

Before they could give an answer to assure him they did, the receptionist came in the room. She approached the girls and Fred and said "Girls, I'm afraid your aunt is going to be busy for at least another half hour." She turned to Fred. "Morrissey got wind about us, and is threatening to blow our deal." Fred got up, the cards tumbling to the floor. "He what? How did he do that?" "I don't know. Ginny is going to try to find out. Don't worry, you know how persuasive your sister can be."

She turned her face to the girls. "by the way, we haven't been introduced girls. My name is Mrs. Dora, but you can call me Tonks." She extended her hand to them. 

"Tonks?" said Jo, realizing who this woman was. "Is your father Mr. Ted Tonks?"

The woman looked stunned at this. "You know my dad?"

"We met him at my gran' s place two weeks ago." explained Xenia. He told us about his old house being destroyed and how you got him a room there.

Comprehension dawned on Tonks' face. She smiled "Ah I see." Her face fell a bit.  "Yes, that was a horrible thing, but your grandmother was so kind to rent him a room. I didn't want him to be with strangers at his age."     

"It's alright" said Xenia. "Its good for her as well, she was all alone in that old house, and mom and dad were worried about her "

"Too true." said Tonks. "You know Xenia, you probably don't remember me, but I visited your parents when you were just a baby. How are they doing? How's Harriet?"

"Mom's fine, works a lot" said Xenia.

"And bugs Xenia about her grades all the time." added Jo, smiling

"Just like I remember her. She hasn't changed." She grinned. "And how about your dad, Ron?"

"Don." corrected Fred quickly.

"Right. Don" amended Tonks. "How is he doing? Is he still working at that gymnasium?"

"Gymnasium? I don't remember that at all. He's a security guard, been one for years"

"Really? Shows what happens when you don't keep in touch. Of course I've been busy too. I've only started working with Ginny and Fred a year ago." She looks at the cards on the floor. "I see your uncle Fred here's been showing you his "magic" tricks, has he? Let him down easy will you?"

"Oh now don't start.  You didn't mind when I showed them to you, did you? You were all Ohh and aahh!" said Fred looking at Tonks.

"yes, I admit I was.. the first 3 times I saw each trick. But you really need to learn some new ones." She winked at him."

"And who says I haven't?" replied Fred. "Do you think I have showed you all my tricks?" he said to her, while giving her a look.

"Well you can show me your tricks whenever you like Fred" said Tonks, now grinning at him. The girls, forgotten, looked at each other and shrugged. At that moment the phones rang, and Tonks ran out to pick it up. Fred, picked up the cards that fell to the floor, still grinning. "Don't tell her yet, but I still haven't learned any new card tricks. Now I have to learn some by tomorrow." 

The girls looked at Fred, then burst into a fit of giggles that carried until Ginny came into the office. 

"Girls, I'm sorry. We're going to have to do this again another week. I promise I'll come and pick you up myself, but we have to go now."

"Can't we stay with uncle Fred and Tonks?" said Xenia, who was hoping to get a chance to ask her uncle about the wand.

"Sorry Zee, they're leaving too." said Ginny, sadly. "Listen, I promise I will take you and Jo to the Zoo a Saturday in the next month, okay?"

Jo looked at Xenia, and saw her own disappointed look being returned to her. They hadn't been able to ask what they wanted, and the mystery will remain unsolved.


	6. The Order

Lil Miss Potter: Thanks for liking the story, but I'm afraid Ron and Hermione aren't hiding their magic, they are hiding from something though. All about their current situation will be explained in this chapter, and you will find out why things are all weird.   
  
Bug2Buggie: Thanks for the review! You will find out a lot in this chapter.   
  
Please review this so that I can get better at writing( its really for your own good! )   
  
The Order.   
  
  
After taking the girls down to the bus stop, and waiting until they got in the bus, Ginny returned to her office. Tonks and Fred were waiting in the lobby, expectant to know what was so important.   
  
"What's wrong Gin?" asked Fred, looking at his sister. "Is it the McCain deal?"   
  
"No, I set him straight. They still don't suspect a thing. We'll be done with that guy before he ever realizes he was conned." Ginny said with a smile on her lips. "No, you wont believe this. It was Corner. There's an Order meeting."   
  
Tonks and Fred looked thunderstruck. "An Order meet? After all these years?" said Fred, incredulously.   
  
"Who called it?" asked Tonks curiously.   
  
"I don't know" said Ginny. Corner isn't even the one supposed to call us, Ron or Hermione are our links. Michael just wanted to check the address.   
  
"Are you sure it's a valid meet then? I mean, the last time we all convened was over 8 years ago, and we agreed that that was a fiasco. We were agreed that there was nothing else left we could do."   
  
"Yeah, but maybe something has changed." Countered Fred. "That was the reason we kept the phone chain alive."   
  
Ok, let's go, " said Ginny. "But if this is Madame March, wanting to ask for why her toadspawn stew isn't bubbling, like the last time, I'm going to dunk her in it." said Ginny in a half-growl.   
  
Doubt it would be March, she passed away 3 years ago, but it could be another old decrepit witch." Said Fred "In any case, It'll be a reunion of sorts. I wonder what all the others are doing."   
  
  
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////   
  
  
The 3rd basement of the building at 17-27, Rose St. was never busy. Most of the owners of the large underground areas used them as long-term storage, and there was rarely ever anybody going there, while more then two occupants appear in the same day hadn't happened in years. Yet today, a lot of people were coming down the elevator that went down to the 3rd level. The security team of the building has orders to inform the owners of the floor in case of any activity that is out of the ordinary, like this, for safety reasons. The building's security chief hasn't however, called anyone. In fact the building's security chief is presently standing in front of a door down at the 3rd basement greeting people into a huge room, where over 200 chairs are arranged in rows. The security chief had in fact given orders that this was a meeting that was within normal work parameters, and that no calls needed to be made. Being the caretaker of the Order's headquarters was an aspect of Ron Weasley's job that he hadn't needed to exercise for over 8 years. This had been the reason he had originally taken the post of security in this building, but he had long since hoped that there would be no more need to use this place. He greeted the people that entered the room. Some of them he recognized, some of them old friends he shook their hand, and some were totally unknown to him. It seemed that a lot of people too young to have been in the order the last time had come to the meeting.   
After a while the groups of people coming out the elevator stopped coming, while the room got quite full. Ron counted about 150 people all together. He walked over to his wife, and asked her " Are we expecting any more?"   
  
"Well, all the ones that confirmed have arrived, or sent someone in their stead, We have about 20-30 people that I never seen before. Young ones, weren't old enough the last time," said Hermione. "We better start this. If anybody's late we'll tell him or her afterwards."   
  
"Right. That reminds me, I'll have to call Fred, Ginny and Tonks afterwards. " said Ron.   
  
Ron went and closed the door to the large room that was buzzing by the small talk of people that hadn't met for years. He returned to his chair next to Hermione at the table. Hermione called for silence.   
  
"I hereby call to order this meeting of the Order of Hedwig!" she sat up, looking at the gathered crowd. "In beginning I want to thank all you old friends who answered the call for a meeting after all these years. I'd also like to welcome the newer generation of people that are here for the first time. I thank you. As you all know, we agreed not to call a meeting unless there was a new development in - -" she looked at a young man, who got up from his seat at the second row. "Yes?"   
  
The young man straightened up. "Angus Abercrombie." He coughed. "I'm here representing my parents and my brother Euan." He looked unaccustomed to public speech, but he took a breath and he carried on.   
  
"I believe I am also speaking for a number of us here." He looked around. "I was in my first year at Hogwarts when we were all unmade. There are some people here that were even younger and never even went to a wizarding school. We all went to muggle schools and lead a normal muggle life now." His voice became stronger. "We have accepted life as muggles and I for one don't really care to remember a fantastic life I never knew, and I'll never have. I came here tonight, admittedly curious to know what this meeting is about, but I also came to figure out why this Order is still around. I want to know what reason we have to help you, if we are wizards no more."   
  
Hermione was taken aback by this declaration but didn't look it. Abercrombie sat back down and there was an outbreak of murmuring in the hall. She hadn't expected this so soon. She looked at the young man and said "Are there many here who have the same questions as Mr. Abercrombie?"   
  
A few people got up tentatively, then more surely, until there were about two dozen people standing.   
  
"Very well." Hermione said, as the people sat back down. " You ask why this Order is still around. Do any of you remember the old days of war? Were you old enough to remember Voldemort?" A shiver went through the older members of the assembly, but some of the younger ones were totally unabashed.   
  
Abercrombie took again the initiative to speak. "We know the stories, and we know he got destroyed on the day we got unmade, but a lot of us see him as what he is… history. He died, but he took the wizarding world with him, and we can't keep holding on to a past that is as dead as him."   
  
Hermione pursed her lips. They had expected that this reaction would appear eventually, but not this soon, not while there was still danger. The time is not yet right   
  
Abercrombie kept on. "After the Dark Lord was destroyed, there was chaos, I remember that much. We never found out what happened that night when we all lost our magical ability, we were simply told to accept it, and migrate into the muggle world. Nobody knew the whole story and I for one, if I'm going to stay in this group want to know why this happened to us." He paused. "I want to know the truth. We all want to know if the rumors are true, that it wasn't Voldemort that took our powers away, but …Harry Potter."   
  
Abercrombie paused, having apparently voiced his main question, relaxed a bit to compose himself. "We want to know about who caused our fates, and whether this… Order, is something that we should feel loyalty to. It's been 15 years! We deserve the whole truth.   
  
  
"Very well" Hermione said again, "I suppose we need to do this, for those of you that were too young back then, and maybe our older members might need reminding."   
  
  
She took a sip from a glass of water and stood up.   
  
"The Unmaking began forming 16 years ago. It took root when Voldemort made himself known again to the wizarding world, after the time he was defeated by the baby Harry Potter. The situation was different from the first time he ascended, because this time there was a force prepared and ready for him, that knew what to expect, and was actively fighting him before he managed to get the massive forces he had before. Under the guidance of Albus Dumbledore, the Order of the Phoenix was at the front lines of the battle from a year before, and with the assistance of the Ministry of Magic was winning more battles then he was losing. However the battle was hard and long. Voldemort had less dark creatures on his side then before, having been driven to extinction so he countered by use of the Dementors, who had been allowed to grow to large numbers having swelled their own ranks as prison guards of Azkaban, the wizard prison.. We lost many friends and good wizards to the Dementors, My brother-in-law Charlie was one of them." Hermione paused as she heard a hiccup coming from Ron, as he remembered his brother.   
  
The ranks of the Order had been swelled with new wizards, family members of Voldemort's victims, who fought, and many of them fell, tirelessly battling the dark forces, but the long run, we seemed to be winning the battle on the front lines. Voldemort had realized this as well and was looking for a different way to victory. He set his goal at finding the Well of the Ages."   
  
Silence filled the hall, as people were now paying close attention to Hermione's every word.   
  
"The Well of the Ages was a fable, supposedly. One of the oldest magical artifacts known, it granted its user the power to permanently block magic from the user's enemies or grant it to whomever he chooses. Voldemort's goal was of course to destroy the magical community, leaving only himself and his followers with magical powers. However, the Well had been lost for ages, and even most of the ancient sources we had claimed that it wasn't true. As it had been lost for so long, there was no known hint to its location. As we discovered Voldemort's plans, we began to search for the Well ourselves. Harry Potter was at the helm of this research, partly due to his own particular gifts.   
  
"What were those gifts?" said a young woman from the back, interrupting her. "What was special about him?"   
  
"You all know that it was he who broke the Dark one's powers the first time they met", Hermione answered, "when Harry was just an infant. For a long time he wondered why this had happened as much as everybody else. The truth to this, as was revealed later, was that his mother, who sacrificed her life in her love for him, gave him a protection that made him impervious to the dark one's power. What wasn't known to me until the final days of the war, was that before Harry's birth, there had been made a prophesy about Harry, and Voldemort. This prophecy foretold Harry's initial survival at the hands of Voldemort and also foretold that the death of Voldemort could only come in Harry's hands, that the only person that could kill Voldemort was Harry." The room gasped slightly "I do not remember the full text of the prophecy, but I do remember the final verse " One must die at the hands of the other, for neither can live while the other survives."   
  
  
She paused. "So the final blow, the death of Voldemort was not for any of us to insure, as it had been preordained years before by the prophesy… That burden belonged solely to Harry Potter."   
  
The room was murmuring now.   
  
"As a result of the failed attempt to kill him, Voldemort had created a magical bond between himself and Harry, that enabled them to see in the other's head, and share feelings, emotions." Hermione continued. "Harry tried to use these to gleam information from Voldemort's mind, while trying to keep him from reading his own. As such we are unsure of who was it that discovered the location of the well first, Harry, or Voldemort, but we can be sure that the other knew soon afterwards.   
  
"The Well was at Hogwarts." The murmurs grew louder. "Perhaps it was its magic that had drawn the four founders to that location in te first place, and doubtlessly afterwards, the strong magical aura of the place was dismissed by the presence of the magical school.   
  
On the day these events transpired there was a large number of wizard at the Order headquarters. There we received the message from Harry that the well was at Hogwarts and that he was racing to it before Voldemort. We left immediately to his aid.   
  
Hermione paused, closing her eyes, as if she was remembering something extremely painful. "We arrived at the school, where we found a group of Death eaters standing over Dumbledore." she stopped again, her voice slightly trembling. She hadn't been forced to recall all this in a long time, and the pain was rising up again. "T-they laughed at us, told us Voldemort had sent a killing curse towards Harry, and Dumbledore had arrived and blocked it with his own body."   
  
"The death eaters had been waiting for us, and their purpose was to keep us from reaching the Well, as they were guarding the entrance to a large hole on the floor of the Great Hall, where Harry and Voldemort had descended. We fought the death eaters, trying desperately to break a hole in their defenses so that some of us can rush to Harry's aid."   
  
"It was while fighting that a huge yellow blinding ball of light rose from the crypt and covered all of us, then passed us over and dissipated into the distance. We didn't understand it at first, but it soon became apparent that not one of us could perform even the simplest of spells. At the horror that Voldemort had succeeded we faced the Death eaters prepared for anything, only to find that they had lost their powers as well."   
  
"That's when we saw a person walk up from the tunnel that we had assumed lead to the crypt. It was Peter Pettigrew, known as Wormtail."   
  
Hermione remembered that moment like it was yesterday. He was looking ragged and black, as thin as he had been that night she had last seen him in the Shrieking shack. He was holding in his hand that shone as if it was made of silvery metal, what looked like a cloak that was full of dirt. He was laughing and wheezing in a manic way.   
  
Suddenly he cried, "The two are gone! Gone! GONE! The dark lord killed Potter! He killed him! He made him go boom!" He was laughing hysterically now. "But Potter had used the well, he used it! And the light bright light I couldn't see. The dark lord cried in pain, and his body was lost! His body was magic, without magic it was lost!" He cradled the parcel he was holding, that Hermione realized must hold what was left of Voldemort. "But the dark lord is wise! He told me how, he told me how to get him back, oh he will be back, we will have a reawakening! A Reawakening!! "He cackled into a burst of maniacal laughter, and clutching the cloak he ran away.   
  
"Hermione cleared her head of the vivid images and went on. "Pettigrew said that Potter activated the well as Voldemort struck him down. As the light covered them, Voldemort was destroyed. We believe that Voldemort's body, being a product of magic itself, needed the presence of magic to exist. As magic was abolished, his body turned to dust. Pettigrew took Voldemort's remains and ran.   
  
The death eaters, panic stricken by the loss were in disarray. Most of them made a run for it. Some of the bigger ones attempted a physical attack, but the lack of magic hindered them as well as us, and in the end many of them ran away after Pettigrew.   
  
We ran down to the crypt of the well, where we expected to find Harry's body. Instead we found nothing. A small cave without anything special except the damaged stones and blackened spots on the walls, that indicated that a wizard's duel had taken place there. No trace of a well, or anything other then rocks was anywhere in the cave.   
  
Afterwards, and for many years we took all the measures we could to discover the secret of the cave, to restore magic, but it was to no avail. The well had abolished magic from everyone and everything.   
  
"Then it is true! It was Potter that caused this!" cried Abercrombie.   
  
"Potter sacrificed his life to save all of ours!" shouted Hermione, her voice still cracking from emotion, her lips quivering. "Had he not used the Well and let Voldemort kill him, you would now be just as powerless, with the Death eaters ruling over the world! Don't you dare blame him for this!" she spat, throwing her fist hard on the table.   
  
It was Abercrombie's turn to be stunned. He hadn't expected this woman, who had kept her cool so far, to explode like that. " I wasn't accusing him. But that is what happened, he did use the well…"   
  
"If he did, he did it to save us all" she said shortly. "The thing is we have no proof about happened in there, except the word of an obviously crazed Death Eater." she sighed. "The truth is we may never know for sure what happened that night in that crypt" she sipped another gulp of water.   
  
Abercrombie stood there breathless, taking in all the new information. "If all this is true, then why did you form this new Order, the order of Hedwig?   
  
Hermione looked at Abercrombie straight in the eyes. "After the Unmaking, the Ministry of Magic worked together with the Muggle government to incorporate the powerless wizards in to muggle society. You see, magic was more then just what we shook out of out wands. All the things in the wizard world required magic to function and many times, even exist. Houses held together magically crumbled, or needed extra support, the loss of the floo network, traveling by broom and apparating made wizard travel and communication next to impossible. Wizard economy was in ruins as mostly all the jobs ceased to exist and magical products became inert, followed by the bankruptcy of Gringott's because the goblins lost all their magical abilities and could not access the vaults. Hogwarts itself was so severely magical, that after the unmaking, all that remained was a ruin of a castle, much like the image the muggles used to see when they looked at it.   
  
In all this confusion, the escaped death eaters went almost unnoticed for a while. A prison breakout released a large amount of the already captured death eaters back to the wild, the remainder were transferred to muggle prisons. But the ones that were free took the crazed words of Pettigrew to heart who believed that Voldemort could be reawakened. It was They laid low for sometime, adapting to their present condition, and ressurfaced, as the terrorist organization the muggles call NDE. At the time, we believed that even though the possibility that Pettigrew was right was slim, we needed a connection between all the people that were possible targets for this NDE. We believed that even though we had no longer the powers of wizards, we were still the best positioned to assist the muggle authorities at catching them. As the Order of the Phoenix had disbanded, its purpose fulfilled, we formed the Order of Hedwig, in honor of the one who died for us, as well as the sole aspect of magical life that remained partly unaffected, owl post. The owls ability to carry letters was crucial for us in the time between the Unmaking and our familiarization with Muggle communication methods." However, even though owls were still capable of traveling with messages, thought Hermione, the wizard's own ability to communicate with them had diminished, and they were eventually set aside in favor of the muggle methods." After the NDE lay quiet for years, we came to the conclusion that they had finally given up and we stopped having meetings. That is until this year."   
  
Hermione looked down on the assembled people. " Do we have any more questions?" she felt tired, drained from reliving some of the worst terrors in her memories. The crowd was silent and she took this as a sign to continue. " The reason we called this meeting is to address the apparent resurfacing activities of the NDE. As I am sure many of you already know, there is an increasing number of attacks this year by a group identified as such. We don't know yet whether they are indeed the original death eaters or if it is just a copycat group. In any case, we believed it prudent to reestablish the connection, so that we can be ready in case of any attacks on former wizard folk."   
  
An old man stood up in the back of the room. " Mrs. Granger, I second that idea. I 've always kept an eye out. I'd like to advise all you younger folk, if you think that you are safe remember that if these are in deed Death Eaters, then wizards living as muggles are going to be prime targets to them. It is exactly what they detest. We have to stick together, all of us"   
  
"Thank you for that comment mr. Fortesqieu," smiled Hermione, "but its Mrs. Wescot now.   
  
The old man nodded, and sat down.   
  
"Any questions now, before I outline the new call plan?   
  
Several hands came up. "Yes, Angelina?" she said smiling at the erstwhile Gryfindor, hadn't changed enough to be unrecognizable, although her face was a hint more plump.   
  
"I don't know what your plan entails, Hermione, but I might be able to help. My husband," she pointed at a blonde man sitting next to her, who nodded at the crowd as they all stared at him," owns a telephone services company. We have over a hundred people on phones at any given moment. We both would like to help if there is a need to put the word out quickly."   
  
"That would be wonderful Angelina!" beamed Hermione, smiling at her and her husband. "Please that'll be helpful, so if you want to stay after the meeting, we'll work out the details. Anything else? Yes?"   
  
"What do the muggles think about these attacks?" Do they believe they are the same group as before?" asked a blond-haired woman sitting behind Angelina's husband.   
  
"We have already called our contact in the muggle police, as well as the Minister of Magic, but we haven't got an answer yet." We should have something though by the next meeting, which I'm proposing will be next week, at the same time."   
  
"Good! Then maybe we can be invited to it!" a voice bellowed. Hermione and Ron turned towards the voice, their glances followed by the rest of the members of the Order.   
  
"Fred? Ginny?" went Ron. "How did you know about the meeting?"   
  
Never mind that. Where is Xenia?" asked Hermione, suddenly looking over Fred's shoulder to see if her daughter was behind them.   
  
"I sent them both home before we left." said Ginny, impatiently. "Why weren't we called to this meeting? Especially if you called it?"   
  
"Because we knew you had the girls with you." said Hermione, "We were going to call and tell you all about it in the afternoon."   
  
"Well isn't that a great idea, send the kids to the babysitter, and call an order meeting!" said an annoyed Tonks.   
  
"It didn't happen like that! The girls had already left for you when we found out the news and called the meeting." said Ron, exasperatedly.   
  
Some of the order members were enjoying this family feud, while others took the opportunity to talk amongst themselves, or check their mobile phone messages.   
  
"So what was this meeting about?" asked Fred. " Xenia and her friend are safely on the no 15, going home. Can you tell us now?" he sneered.   
  
Before Ron could answer, a voice from the bag of the room shouted "Hey, do you have a television here?"   
  
Hermione replied yes. "Then open it!" the person stood up and had earphones in his ears. " I just heard the news. There has been an attack!"   
  
Ron walked over to the set that was sitting on a shelf, covered with a sheet. He uncovered it, and turned it on. There was a bulletin on.   
  
_Jonathan Galford here, from the center of London, the corner of Wessley and Banks, where until a few minutes ago it was a battle zone between members of the NDE and police officers. The terrorists attacked with home made bombs that ravaged the part of the street, and stopped traffic cold. They have been chased by the officers towards the north. I can't tell if there are any casualties yet, due to the heavy smoke caused by the multiple explosions. I believe the images speak for themselves._   
  
The images were of a London street that looked demolished. Only a few things were visible through the smoke. They all looked at the storefronts where glass lay shattered, at cars overturned and on fire, large holes in the ground, apparently were bombs had struck. Then the camera panned more and the entire group of Weasleys/Wescots with Tonks gasped.   
  
There was a bus there turned on its side, with all the windows shattered, and black smoke coming from the engine. It had a large "15" written in fluorescent letters appearing over the place where the driver ought to be.   
  
"Oh my…" Ginny let out, her eyes wide.   
  
"My baby…" Hermione felt her mouth saying, and collapsed.   
  



	7. The NDE

**Lyra**: Thanks for the heads up. Will correct it with this update.   
  
**Sneezy Mouse** : Thanks loads for your comments! When I find the time to check out my punctuation in the past chapters I will do so. I admit that I don't use enough time to proofread, will try to rectify that in the future. I appreciate your praise for my writing, and I'm grateful that the story is shaping up so well. I have read your 'Prankster' stories and thought they were great stuff) I never (ever!) tried to write fiction before and I was afraid I'd have it turn all wrong by trying too hard for my first time. (I still think I should have changed some more stuff, but one revision is enough. Maybe after I finish it …)   
  
One other thing. The story here is set in London, however my knowledge of English is more US/Canadian then British. I would appreciate it if anyone sees any blatant Americanisms that they give me a heads up.   
  
  
The NDE   
  
The girls were feeling miserable. After a week of anticipation to they had really thought they would have gotten to the bottom of the mystery of the wand. They took two seats of right at the back of the bus that was nearly full.   
  
"I can't believe this whole day has been a waste!" exclaimed Xenia, as she looked back to see her aunt turn back and rush back to her office.   
  
"Well I wouldn't say that," said Jo, "We did get an ice cream out of it, didn't we?" she said half-jokingly.   
  
"_We didn't come here to eat ice cream Jo!_" snapped Xenia. "I want to know where this–this thing came from, don't you!?" she pointed at Jo's bag, which had the wand hidden in it.   
  
"You know I do, but we won't find out anything if you bite my head off." said Jo, calmly.   
  
Xenia sighed. She sat back in her seat, tilting her head up. "I suppose you're right. Its just that I had gotten my hopes up, and when uncle Fred said he'd do a magic trick, I nearly lost it."   
  
"Me too" said Jo, remembering the event, she ran her hand through her hair. "I was sure he was going to pull another wand from the drawer or something like that" she said with an air of disappointment.   
  
The girls spent the next few minutes looking out the windows, as the bus kept moving along its route and past the business district. After a while, as she got bored of it, Xenia turns to Jo and says: "You know, we now have the rest of the day free, and nothing planned."   
  
"So?" asked Jo, puzzled.   
  
"Our parents don't expect us home till late in the afternoon" explained Xenia. "Do you think there is anything fun we can do?"   
  
"Jo looked lost in thought for a second, then said "You know what we should do?" she opened her bag and pulled out a magazine "There's a presentation about the Mars mission at the Blackadder Presentation Hall."   
  
"Where is that?" asked Xenia   
  
Its on Banks Street, we passed it as we were coming over." said Jo. "It's a few stops ahead from us now." she paused. "But I don't know about this." she added, "what if your aunt Ginny calls your mom & dad and tells them we aren't with her?"   
  
"Then lets call them" offered Xenia, "But only after we get off the bus. That way we can say that we'll be just in and out at the exhibit, and they can't tell us off for not calling." she grinned.   
  
Jo grinned back. "Alright, that's a plan. Now let me see which stop we get off" she consulted a tiny map of London she carried in her bag.   
  
"Blackadder Hall is.. " Jo looked at a street sign outside, "6 blocks away from here." Right then the bus slowed down at the bus stop.   
  
The girls got off the bus on Banks Street, and walked up the sidewalk to reach the exhibit. The day was quite sunny and warm for a November day, and there were many people walking around. Xenia got out her phone and called her house, but nobody answered. She tried her parents' mobiles, but they were out of range, and so was mrs. Allington's. "Good. If we can't reach them, then neither can aunt Ginny. Lets go, the exhibit is just ahead."   
  
They reached the hall were the exhibit was, got in past the ticket booth, and entered the main hall. They marveled at the full-sized replica of the Phaedra that greeted them.   
  
"Wow" went Jo, and the gaped mouth on Xenia next to her, seemed to agree with that statement.   
  
The shuttle that stretched for over 110 metres, painted in shimmering light blue, dwarfed the giant hall, which was a feat in itself. The various booths, with exhibits were scattered around the shuttle. The girls walked over next to the stairs that led to the main hatch, which was cordoned off, and read the information written in large golden letters:   
  
  
_Phaedra I _  
  


_The Phaedra is the was the first privately-owned ship to attempt to travel beyond the moon. Beginning as an idea from a Greek-born Englishman, taking form as a collaboration of many British corporations, the Phaedra Space Initiative (PSI) took on an international role as many private businesses and even private citizens throughout the world gave it their support. The first result was the Phaedra I, the shuttle that set the first observation/refueling station on the moon, and that is continually making exploratory trips over our natural satellite's surface. _

  
  
The girls looked at it in awe. Xenia, who was never particularly excited when news about the space programs appeared on the news, was in now in awe as she imagined that the ship she was looking at traveled to other worlds. Jo however had already moved over to the next display. It was a giant sized photo of another spaceship, painted in the same colors as the large ship next and over them, although it looked sleeker and longer then it. The sign under it read Phaedra II   
  
"Whoa, look at these specs Zee!" shouted Jo, clearly ecstatic. The _Phaedra II _is almost twice as big as _Phaedra I_! Wow!   
  
Xenia read the summary:   
  
" _The Phaedra II is the culmination of many years of PSI planning. The ship, assembled and based in the moon's orbit, has as main goal to establish a permanent observation station on the surface of Mars, similar to the one on the moon, which will serve as a refueling station as future missions move towards the outer parts of the solar system. The Phaedra II, that first left moon orbit over …_"    
  
BOOM!   
  
The girls were startled by the large sound that reverberated in the giant hall they were standing in, the echo hitting them multiple times. The large sound was an explosion that sounded as if it had happened right outside. This first explosion was followed by other, smaller ones, who were in turn followed by shouts and screams. The few other people in the hall with them had recovered from the initial shock and were running towards the windows to see what was going on. The girls followed suit, overwhelmed by their sense of curiosity. They reached a window near the door, where they had to stand up on a table to reach the window. The window was about 12 metres from the sidewalk, and was curved outwards so the girls had a large horizon to look through. And what they were looking at left them breathless.   
  
The street that they had been walking on a little over twenty minutes ago, was in a total disarray. Smoke was billowing from several fires in the middle of the street; storefront windows were lying smashed and blackened, and people were running, scrambling to get off the street. A bus lay overturned about three and a half a blocks away, close to the bus stop where they had gotten off. There was a bunch of people that were running towards their part of the street. These people however didn't appear to be running for cover. They were all dressed in gray-green camouflage trousers and wore black jackets. They were also wearing large black hoods that seemed too large for their heads. They were in a closely packed group, and were quite heavily armed. Xenia could see that one of them had a row of grenades attached around his waist. A couple of them were holding automatic weapons, and were firing towards the direction they were running from. The girls looked towards the direction he was firing at to see a group of policemen ducking for cover. The attackers however, didn't keep firing, rather they stopped as soon as the police had stopped chasing them. They seemed more intent to get away then to fight. Indeed, one member of the group was shouting at the others, and as they reached closer to Blackadder Hall, the girls could make out his words.   
  
"…accomplished! We regroup at Point C! Scatter! Now! N-Aaargh!"   
  
One of the police that were following them had managed a shot, hitting the speaker, who appeared to be the group leader, on the head. He fell to the floor, face down. The girls gasped at the sight, only to be totally shocked when he pushed himself up to his knees. He grabbed at his cowl and removed it.   
  
If the sight of him getting shot in the head was a shock, seeing the person's face was even more shocking. The entire top of his head was covered with a yellowish foam, that looked like it had been spread all over his head as a helmet, leaving only his face apparent. It was this face that had shocked the girls. For all over this man's face was tattooed the face of a giant skull, its eyes falling on the man's eyes. Its skeletal mouth over the man's own.   
  
The man checked out the back of his head, apparently looking for where the bullet had hit, but apparently there was no injury. The foam covering his head had protected him. He pulled the hood back on his head, and shouted to the rest of his group that were standing in cover near him, having seen him hit, unsure of what to do next.   
  
"I'm not hit! Now go! GO!" she shouted, his voice gravelly.   
  
The group started to disperse, when Jo's eyes widened. She gasped,   
  
"Zee," she whispered. "Look at their wrists!"   
  
Xenia, looked at the people running away from them, and gasped in turn. "Wands!"   
  
These attackers that were now running in separate directions, had, strapped to their wrists, long wooden sticks, that Jo and Xenia would not have recognized if they hadn't been looking at one very much alike ast every chance they got for the last two weeks. She tried to look and see if they all had one, but they were rapidly running away and she couldn't get a clear view anymore. She turned towards Jo to ask her what she thought of it, when a large deafening explosion rocked them both. They both suddenly decided that sitting around talking next to bombs and grenades exploding might not be such a good idea. They ran down through the large hall in a straight line, going through exhibits without any resistance, as most of the security guards had gone to the main door to stop any of the attackers, should they attempt to take refuge in the hall. They nearly ran down an old woman before they stopped at the opposite end of the hall where a sign said "_Phaedra II – Space Capsule_". As soon as they caught their breaths, they looked at each other, not quite knowing what to say. Jo was weirded out about seeing those people with wands, but that seemed so unlikely, she wondered if she had imagined it. Xenia had been rattled by the revelation, as well as all the explosions, but a tiny part of her felt a thrill, knowing that a piece of the puzzle she was trying to solve had fallen into her lap.   
  
"Did you see those wands Zee?' said Jo first, still breathing fast. "They were wands right?"   
  
"Yes they were." replied Xenia. "They looked just like ours. I can't believe they had wands. Why would terrorists have wands?" she said flushed with excitement.   
  
"I don't know, I'm still shocked by seeing them there." said Jo in a shaky voice. By the way, Zee, next time we hear a big boom, let's run _the other way!_"   
  
"Oh don't be a killjoy," scoffed Xenia. "Nothing happened to us, did it?"   
  
"Well I don't want to wait till it does, ok?" Jo retorted. She opened her bag, and pulled out the wand. She twirled it between her fingers. "What is your secret, little twig?" Suddenly she froze, grabbing the wand, stopping it in mid-twirl. "Zee, what if this thing is some kind of weapon made by the terrorists?"   
  
"Come on!" laughed Xenia, "What do terrorists need sparks for? To see in dark passages? Or is it to do magic shows on the side to pay the bills? No, I don't think our wand is a terrorist wand"   
  
Jo laughed as the image of the men in hoods outside doing a magic show on a street corner came into her head. "Okay, this isn't one of theirs." She held out the wand up high so they could both see it in the light from the window. "So what is it?"   
  
Xenia suddenly looked at her watch. "Oh zonk! Look at the time! We have to go!"   
  
Jo looked at her own watch and said "Now Zee? We still have a good hour before we need to go home."   
  
"We had an hour, when we had a bus line waiting 5 minutes from here, now the street is so trashed that it will take hours for it to get cleared."   
  
Jo's face went white. "Omigod, you're right!" How are we going to get home?" she stuffed the wand back in her bag and slung it over her shoulder. She took out her map. "I don't have bus routes on this map."   
  
"Don't panic. I think I saw a bunch of bus maps next to the ticket booth." said Xenia calmly " We'll get one and see were we go from there.   
  
Jo nodded and the girls started walking quickly towards the exit.   
  


* * *

  
  
She had done it, as they knew she would have. She understood that this was the only way for things to be right again. And she would have been a part of it. No one could doubt her worth now, not when her actions had reversed the traitorous betrayal of that Potter whelp. The indignities she had suffered, the tasks her new commander gave her that made her sick at times, all that would be worth it, when the whole world sees what her suffering had brought them. She would then be rewarded. Yes, she would be rewarded handsomely. And then all those foul traitors will be shunned like she was, ridiculed as she was, mocked as …   
  
Her train of thought was broken as something bumped into her, nearly knocking her to the ground. She looked around to see the rude person that had ran off without even apologizing. She saw two young girls, maybe eleven years old stopping about 20 feet from her. "Filthy children, no manners at all, I should take them down and give them a lesson I should" she thought. She didn't like children, but she stopped herself from doing anything. It was imperative to her mission and her position that she is never associated with this project, and the last thing she needed is to be dragged off by the muggle police. Instead she just stood there looking at them muttering curses, but stopped that after a while, as she remembered that she couldn't make the curses work anymore. She just glared at them for a while, until she decided that it was of no use to stay there, so she looked hard at their faces, to remember them if she came across them after the project was finished and started to leave.   
  
She froze.   
  
One of the girls took out of her backpack what was unmistakingly-- a wand! She instinctively brought her hands over her face as to protect herself, until she remembered again that wands were still powerless. The girl had taken the wand and was twirling it like a bandleader twirls his baton. For a while the old woman couldn't comprehend the image before her. The image of a wizard or witch so casual with their wands in a public muggle place was unheard of even before the Unmaking, for it was against the Section 13 of the International Confederation of Warlocks' Statute of Secrecy. Afterwards those that didn't throw their wands away, never carried them with them. As the initial shock passed she started thinking more clearly. These were clearly the children of a former wizarding family. In fact, now that she was looking at them, she saw that the other child, the one not holding a wand had an uncanny resemblance to the ones her commander had sought for years. She felt a smile creep up her wrinkled lips. "This was turning out to be a better day then I had expected. A two-in-one. Splendid, splendid!" Then, as she saw the girls walking quickly towards the exit, she let a small distance and began walking after them, a slight limp apparent in her left leg.   
The girls took a bus map from where Xenia had seen them, and discovered that if they took the underground they could reach within walking distance of Jo's house, so that Xenia could take her bike home, and they wouldn't even be late at all.   
  


* * *

  
"But how are we going to get to the station?" asked Jo, still a bit unnerved.   
  
"The station we need is here," she pointed at the map. We just have to walk past Derrington Rd, take Baldrick lane to the left and walk for about 15 blocks.   
  
"That's a long way to walk, what if those masked people are still out there?" she said, her voice shuddering.   
  
"They're not, or you'd hear more explosions, but those stopped a while ago." said Xenia trying to calm Jo down "Now let's go. The sooner we leave, the sooner we'll be home."   
  
They went past the gates of Blackadder hall, that were still covered by 4 security guards, who smiled at them as the were going out. The street was a mess. The fires had died down, but there was still a large amount of smoke in the air, and there were cars overturned everywhere. A TV van was stopped on the other side of the smashed bus, apparently reporting on the attack. The girls got to the street quickly, as the sidewalk was littered with smashed glass from storefront windows. Their way was on the opposite side of the reporter's van, and they were walking with a quickness in their step, partly due to their surroundings, and partly because they didn't want to be late going home. Behind them, trying to hurry as well, was the old woman that they had bumped into in the main hall.   
  
"Here it is!" said Xenia looking at a sign that said 'Baldrick lane.' They turned to it and walked down it, as the noise and voices coming from the TV van died out.   
  
As they went on down, Jo started to shiver. Baldrick lane might have seemed the shortest way to the underground station, but as they walked down it, both the girls wished they had taken a busier street, with more people walking around. It was quiet, almost too quiet compared with the ruckus in front of the Hall. Jo looked behind her, trying to decide if it would be better to double back, when she saw her.   
  
"Zee," she said keeping her voice low, "we're being followed." She grabbed Xenia's shoulder as she began instinctively to turn. "Don't turn around like that! Be slow!"   
  
Xenia turned around slowly. She saw the old woman limping away towards them. She turned slowly back to the front, and said to Jo, "That old woman? Are you sure?"   
  
"Yes!" said in a voice straining to stay low, "She has been following us since the Hall." She looked back again. She gasped. "Oh no! she's catching up!"   
  
The woman had apparently realized that she had been spotted, and suddenly put on a rush of speed. The girls, moving as one started running. Their pursuer was moving quite fast for an old woman, and the girls weren't making as much progress as they'd like. Suddenly Jo tripped over something and fell down. Her knee struck the ground first as she was running.   
  
"Ow!!" she cried. "My knee!" She doubled up holding her knee with both her hands wrapped around it. Xenia, hearing the cry of pain turned around and saw Jo lying on the floor, rocking on the concrete, the old woman getting nearer. She suddenly felt a touch of panic as a shiver ran down her spine.   
  
"Jo! Come on, get up, she's catching up!" She helped her up. Jo was limping, her left leg unable to support any weight. Xenia, looked over to the end of the street. They weren't going to make it to the corner before the old woman caught up with them; She looked all around, her heart thumping wildly. She saw a passage in a building to their left, Left without any other way out, she decided quickly, then guided Jo through the passage. They walked as fast as they could but it was not fast enough. The woman behind them was catching up fast. The passage turned sharply to the left, then to the right, then opened to a large open area, that was half full of large boxes. Xenia had a flash of an idea. She let Jo to lean on a wall, then went and pushed at a stack of boxes that were near the opening. She could hear the sound of steps going near them. She pushed harder. The boxes toppled covering the entire opening, effectively blocking it.   
  
"Come on Jo," said Xenia, taking Jo around the shoulder. "We're okay now, but we better put more distance between us and her."   
  
  
  
The girls started walking away from the toppled boxes, each looking back once towards the toppled boxes that blocked their pursuer from following them. There was no noise coming from there at all.   
  



End file.
